Return of The King
by Coffeetailor
Summary: About a year after the ‘death’ of Atemu and Seth’s taking power, Egypt is at war. Rumors surface that Atemu is among his people once again, and Seth follows them. How will the former high priest react to seeing his cousin again, or the rest of his camp?
1. Dreams and Hope

A/N: I honestly do think that the plot bunnies are getting organized against us. I've started taking measures to defend myself against them, but as you can tell, they're breaking through. Anyway, this fanfiction is a bit out of my usual territory, as some of my older readers might notice, but the idea's been staying with me for a while now and I figured that I'd get it onto paper, or, in this case, computer screen. In any case, this first chapter at the very least is longer than they normally are in my fanfictions, so I hope it works well. I'm not absolutely certain at this point, but I don't think that there will be any couplings this time, a features that's been playing in a lot of my newer pieces, most of which haven't been started just yet. So to close my opening notes, I don't own Yugioh, but I do hope that you like this new fanfiction anyway. Read, enjoy, and if you would, review.

"..." Japanese

"-...-" Ancient Egyptian

"..." Modern Arabic

"Return of the King"

Chapter One

Dreams and Hope

It was the tenth month that Atemu had possessed his own body, separate from his other half's, and it was his tenth night of battle-filled dreams. Foreign armies rode against Egypt, slaughtering her sons and defiling her daughters. Egypt's armies tried to defend their country but lacked the power, as well as a certain sense of the spirit. Even the kohl-lined eyes of the new pharaoh were weary of bloodshed and losing hope in their survival. Such familiar blue eyes. _Why did you have to leave us, my cousin, just before one of our darkest hours? We need you, Atemu._

Crimson orbs shot open as Atemu woke up, gasping for breath. He couldn't take it any longer. The dreams grew too much.

Throwing off his blankets, he dressed quickly before grabbing his coat to ward off the chill present in the middle of the night despite it being summer in Japan. While borrowing Yugi's body, already used to the local climate, he'd been fine and warm at twenty degrees, but with his own Egyptian skin he preferred things to be much warmer.

With skills taught to him by none other than the embodied tomb robber himself, for the reason that "You have to be able to survive until I can kill you", he moved silently past Yugi's ajar door and Jii-san's closed one, sneaking down the stairs and slipping out through the door.

"There were no Egyptian temples in Japan – not even in Domino, which housed almost an entire Egyptian court complete with priests and dancer." But for the lone pharaoh in his time of desperation, there was one place that he could use to find solace: The Domino City Museum.

It was, of course, closed. However, as much as he loathed admitting it, Bakura was right to say that being closed had never stopped a shadow user from entering a building, and Atemu wasn't about to start letting it.

As he was passing from the shadows, shoes touching on the polished floor, he felt another's mind brush against his. /Atemu? What are you doing?/

/Who says I'm doing anything?/ the pharaoh asked, stepping through the Egyptian exhibit, which was curiously free of alarms. /Don't worry, aibou./

/Then would you mind at least explaining where you are?/ Yugi questioned, and the spirit could practically see his hikari glaring with his arms crossed over his chest. The teenager had definitely been spending too much time with the tomb robber. /And don't tell me that you're still in your bed and playing with the shadows to help you get to sleep because I'm _sitting_ on your bed right now./ _Far_ too much time.

Atemu sighed. /I'm at the museum./

Yugi's voice was sympathetic even through their link. /The nightmares again? Have they been getting worse?/

/Yes./

/Wake me up when you get back then, so I don't have to worry,/ the hikari said, yawning. /Goodnight, Yami./

/Sleep well, Hikari,/ Atemu said, closing the link.

Normally on these nights, if he left the Mouto household, the spirit would go to the tablet and remember his Egypt, of which now only a scattered few members of the court and a few tribes of tomb keepers and mejia remained. Oh, and one tomb robber, but he didn't really count.

But he didn't stop in front of the ancient tablet this night, for he wasn't seeking memories. Carefully kneeling, Atemu stared up into the stone face of Ra.

"-My lord Ra, I beg your aid. For these past ten nights, I have been plagued by dreams showing me the destruction of my people. Please, give me a way to help them.-"

The spirit lowered his head to the ground and waited, but for what he didn't know. Suddenly, a hand fell upon his shoulder. He froze as a voice that was thousands spoke.

"-Gather your allies, Atemu. Convince your priests and reunite your followers as they are scattered across the desert. Bright together what is left of Our Egypt, and bring them to the keepers' valley. Do this, and We will aid you from there.-"

"-Thank you, my lord,-" Atemu whispered, nearly shaking under the god's powerful touch.

"-You have pleased Us in the past, young pharaoh. We believe that you will do so again this time.-" Ra's grip on his shoulder grew firmer and Atemu could feel his amusement in the air. "-Thief, do you think that We have not noticed you? Come out and take your place before Us.-"

"-It was more along the lines of me hoping that you didn't feel like paying attention to me.-"

_Bakura?_ Out of the corner of his eye, Atemu caught sight of silver hair as the tomb robbed leaned casually against an ornamental pillar. The utter rudeness before the sun god was shocking to the game king. Fortunately for the both of them, along with the structure of the building, Ra seemed to be more amused by the act of defiance than angered.

"-So you still refuse your upbringing, Akifa,-" Ra said, letting go of Atemu's abused shoulder. "-Do you still begrudge Us for Our high priest's actions, even after We saved you from death?-"

"-Maybe I just found an occupation that suits my personality better,-" Bakura said, snorting. "-Priest Akifa sounds stupid anyway.-"

"-You will aid Atemu in his quest,-" the god said with an air of finality that not even Bakura dared to challenge. "-Go ahead of him and gather the Mejia and the tomb keepers so that he may meet with them as one. We have decided.-"

Surprisingly, Bakura pushed himself from the pillar and moved to kneel down next to Atemu, who was still rather frozen in shock. "-If it is your will, my lord Ra.-"

With that, the god's presence vanished from the room and the spirit formerly of the puzzle found himself able to breathe again. Bakura was scowling as they each straightened up, muttering furiously under his breath.

"Priest Akifa?" Atemu questioned, raising an eyebrow as he regained his calm.

"Akifa's my child name, and I was originally raised to become a priest to Ra," Bakura said, stretching. "Ironic, isn't it? Could have become High Priest if it weren't for Seth's father." He snorted softly. "Damn them to hell that I still can't disobey an order from the gods."

"Why were you here, Bakura?" he asked, suspicious. "If something here went missing, Ishizu would know the first place to look for it."

"I wasn't here to steal anything, so you can stop your not-so-subtle hinting that I was," the white-haired man growled. "As for why I _am_ here, why don't you ask _him_?" He jerked his head in the direction of the statue. "Someone had to disable all of the alarms, and Ra's a lazy ass." Bakura ignored the pharaoh's hiss at his blasphemy. "Well, I'm beat, and it looks like I'll be catching the first flight to Egypt in the morning. Ten days. If you're not in the valley of the tomb keepers by then, I'm leaving."

"Ten days," Atemu agreed, nodding. "Though I suspect it'll take at least half of that time to convince Kaiba to go along with us, and the other half to convince Jii-san."

"Have fun with that," Bakura said, smirking. "By the way, I'm leaving Ryou under your care until we meet up in Egypt. I won't have time to be watching over the kid all the time."

"And you think I will?" the royal asked, but he was asking the air, for Bakura had already vanished into the shadows. "I hate him. Really, I do."

Yugi was sitting up in bed by the time Atemu stepped back out of the shadows in the younger teenager's bedroom, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "How'd it go?"

Too exhausted from that night's ordeal to walk the ten feet to his own room, Atemu flopped down on the bed as soon as he managed to kick off his shoes and struggle out of his jacket, shifting just enough so that the hikari could pull the blankets over both of them. "How would you feel about an impromptu trip to Egypt?"

"And just what brought this on?" Yugi asked, settling on his side to watch his yami's face in the moonlight that leaked in through the open blinds.

"Oh, you know, the usual: Start talking to a statue of a god and he talks back," Atemu remarked wryly as he buried his face in a pillow.

"I swear, only in Domino," Yugi muttered, smiling slightly with a roll of his violet eyes. "How long do we have to get there?"

The reply was muffled by a mouthful of tan pillowcase. "Ten days."

"Well, that doesn't sound too hard," Yugi said, thinking out loud. "Use the first few to convince Jii-san, then another to book the flight and pack. We can get there a day or so early even and do some touring maybe."

Atemu rolled over. "It's not that simple, I'm afraid. We have to gather everyone in Domino, Kaiba especially."

Yugi winced. "Ouch. Well, that complicates things, doesn't it? Even if he did finally accept the rod from us when you and Bakura got your own bodies, I don't think he's taken it out of its glass case since he got it. Can't we get Bakura to convince him?"

"Nope. The thief leaves for Egypt first thing in the morning. Ra told him to go ahead of us and gather our numbers there. That's why I have the ten-day deadline," the spirit said. "Ugh, too much to think about this late. Go to sleep hikari." With that, he pulled the blanket up over his head and rolled onto his right side, pointedly facing away from Yugi as if to say that there would be no more talking this night.

"Goodnight, Atemu," Yugi chuckled, curling up against his other's back to share the heat. A sleepy grunt was his only answer.

-

Over the years of dealing with Seto Kaiba, the two game kings had learned that, in even in social matters, one had to go through special channels. Namely, they had to go through Mokuba.

"You've got to be kidding me," the dark-haired preteen said, leaning back in his chair. "There is no way that Seto is going to Egypt, especially on the beck and call of an Egyptian god. I'm kind of surprised you didn't send Bakura to convince him though."

"The thief will already be on the way there by now," Atemu said, wishing greatly to pound his head on the desk Mokuba sat behind. "I'm not sure whether it's really a good idea to have let him and Marik loose on Alexandria unsupervised."

"Ishizu's there," Yugi pointed out.

"So it Rashid, and he'll cover for Marik in a heartbeat," the darker half countered. He turned back to the younger Kaiba. "Could you talk to him for us, please?"

"Fine, but you'll owe me for this," Mokuba said, sighing.

-

When Bakura stepped out of the plane and into the Egyptian sun, he was glad that he'd been sent alone since it allowed him a moment of childish glee to spin around with his arms spread. He was _home_.

"Someone's in a good mood," a voice said, speaking in modern Arabic.

"I'm always in a good mood when I'm away from the royal shrimp," Bakura said, walking up to the blond and embracing him. "It's been too long, Marik."

"Not according to my sister," Marik replied, grinning as he led the spirit to the waiting motorcycle. "She's waiting at a cafe in town with Rashid."

"I hope the place serves real food, and not that imported American junk Ryou's friends are so fond of."

The pair laughed as they mounted the bike and rode toward town, carefully avoiding the people on foot because "Ishizu threatened to stop paying for the fuel."

"So where _is _Ryou?" Marik asked, pushing open the café door. He sent a cheerful wave to the owner, who muttered something about 'another one' in a tone that clearly said he was going to lock up the valuables as soon as he had a free moment.

"Left him in Japan with his holiness," Bakura said, flopping down at a partially occupied table. "Hello, Ishizu, Rashid."

"You've been here only once before in the last five thousand years and yet you still manage to walk around like you own the place," the woman said with a light smile. "Priest Bakura," she added by way of greeting.

Catching his cue, the thief switched to Japanese as well, frowning. "I'm no priest, Ishizu, and I never will be one, upbringing be damned. If we only ever became what our first lessons told us to be, we wouldn't be having this conversation because I would have died normally here five thousand years ago and the two of you would still be underground."

The Tauk bearer winced, glancing guiltily at her younger brother. Quickly, she changed the subject. "How do you plan to find the Mejia? The Ishtar clan lost contact with them shortly after becoming tomb keepers."

"If they're still able to use their magics, I'll find them," the white-haired man said with a shrug as a hand reached up to brush against the ring. "I wouldn't have been sent to find them had it been out of my ability. Trust me on this one. While I'm out seeking them, however, I need you three to work at convincing your clan. It shouldn't be too hard, not now that Marik has his proper item. So, Shadi finally coughed it up?"

Marik jumped. "How'd you know I received the scales?"

Bakura rolled his eyes. "Please. The shadows are still tasting your aura, and I can sense the scales themselves. It's obvious if you know how to look."

Rashid smiled. "I wonder what the Pharaoh would say if he knew how attuned to the items you are."

"Only makes sense," Bakura said with a shrug. "My blood was used to make them in the first place. So, what do you think our chances of convincing your clan really are?"

"They won't risk disobeying Marik in case we should be telling the truth," Ishizu said, taking a sip of water. "Not now that the pharaoh has been resurrected. One of our purposes in remaining isolated was to be free to answer the call of our king when he needs us. Let us worry about our own kin, tomb robber. You worry about what the Mejia will try to do when they notice an embodied spirit sneaking around their lands."

The forenamed thief grinned, canines flashing. "Oh, they won't notice me until I've gotten tired of sneaking and announce myself."

The owner of the café wasn't so sure he liked the way that the two pale-haired teenagers laughed. Oh yes, it was time to buy bigger locks for the safe.

-

Several miles and a couple of thousand years away, the Pharaoh Seth wiped sweat from his forehead. The spirits of his people was already falling as it was, and to see him in a state that was less than godly would not help in the least. A map was laid out on the table before him, marked with the movements of his own troops and the little they knew of their enemy's rapidly changing paths of destruction. It was as though they were being herded, like so many cattle, into the desert.

"-Seth, you are no good to Egypt if you die from exhaustion, be it by heat or overwork,-" Isis said, stepping into the tent. "-Surely a short nap will not be the source of our downfall.-"

"-I don't seem to be any good to Egypt anyway, so what's the use?-" he growled, tearing his eyes from the map to glare at the priestess. "-Don't you have soldiers to be tending to?-"

"-They are concerned for you,-" she said.

"-They are concerned that I will get them killed,-" Seth corrected bitterly, returning to his charts. "-They are concerned that I will fail now that I no longer have the shadows to help fight and my cousin no longer directs us all. It is a concern I share with them.-"

Isis sighed, shaking her head sadly. "-You have no faith in yourself, Seth. Atemu trusted you with his people--"

"-I never said he was wise,-" he interrupted.

"-He trusted you with his people and he trusted that you would be able to protect them even without the ability to call upon the shadows,-" she finished, frowning. "-Your cousin would not have wanted you to nearly kill yourself in the process.-"

The new pharaoh snorted. "-Why not? That's _exactly_ what he did, and that was _with_ the aid of the shadows.-"

"-Which he sealed for a purpose!-" Isis said, raising her voice. "-And he was able to give up his life for it because Atemu knew that you would be able to take his place! You have no sons, no brothers, and no living family to take the throne after your death! Egypt _needs_ a pharaoh, Seth, and until you produce an heir, you're it.-"

"-Full points on your speech, _priestess_, but I have work to do,-" he said, towering over the woman. "-Tend to your duties and allow me to tend to mine. Dismissed.-"

He didn't allow himself to lean on the table until she'd left the tent, wishing to pound his head against it. Damn that woman for being right. In giving up, he'd be breaking his promise to Atemu, doubly damn his soul for laying such a heavy responsibility on Seth's shoulders.

Stepping to the doorway of the royal tent, he looked outside, odd blue eyes – a rare color in Egypt – scanning over his camp. The soldiers here were only a fraction of Egypt's total armies, the majority spread over the land to defend where they were needed. _Atemu, what should I do?_

He ducked back under the cloth before any of his former fellow priests, or any of the new ones for that matter, could spot him and start worrying over his health. Perhaps a little rest _would_ help, if only to give his mind a fresher start at guessing the enemy's next moves. As he slept, Seth dreamed.

He knew it to be a sign that he had been working too much in the heat with too little water because the Thief King Bakura walked through the desert sands under Atemu's colors, searching for something using Mahado's ring, and a stranger, also under the former pharaoh's colors, bore Shada's scales as he spoke to a group of people under the sands.

But despite the fact that he dreamed of one of the worst opponents in the time of the shadows, and of a man whom he'd never seen who also bore strangely pale hair, the images sent a strange sense of hope through him.

The last thing he saw before being awoken by a messenger was a pair of hauntingly familiar crimson eyes. _Seth, cousin, we are coming. Hold on._

"-My Lord Pharaoh, I beg forgiveness for waking you, but I have an urgent message from our southern front,-" the messenger said, bowing low.

"-Give it to Us and fetch Our priests,-" Seth said, getting to his feet. "-Tell them that We have received a message from the gods.-"

The man blinked. "-A message, my lord?-"

Seth closed his eyes, smiling for the first time in what seemed like years. "-Help is on its way.-"


	2. Calling of Allies

A/N: Yatta! New chapter's finished. Man, I'm not used to writing single chapters this long in fanfictions. It's hard work. Hey, thanks to all of my wonderful reviewers. I'm glad that you like it so far. Anyway, I still don't own Yugioh. Wish I did, but I don't. Sadness. On a last note, I've fixed a couple of language markers that the site wouldn't accept earlier and reposted the first chapter along with this one. There's a key in chapter one as well, but just so you don't all have to go and recheck it, I'll put one under the notes here as well. Hope you enjoy the new chapter.

"…" Japanese

"-…-" Ancient Egyptian

"…" Modern Arabic

"Return of the King"

Chapter Two

Calling of Allies

It didn't look like it was going to take long to convince Sugoroku to let them travel to Egypt. At least, it would be all right for Yuugi to go, as Atem and Ryou weren't technically in Sugoroku's jurisdiction. That is, until they told him that one Seto Kaiba would be not only accompanying them, but that he would be paying for the trip.

"Absolutely not," the old man said, standing firm despite the combined pleading eyes of Atemu, Yugi, and Ryou, who'd shown up at their doorstep when they'd gotten back from talking to Kaiba.

"But it's really important, Jii-san," Yugi insisted, turning up the cuteness to maximum, a level only used in the direst of situations, for his own sake as well as the sake of whomever it was turned against.

"Yugi, the last time I let you go gallivanting around in Egypt because you said it was important, you had to mail home for more money to buy an extra plane ticket." The elder Mouto looked pointedly at Atemu, who had the decency to look sheepish. Ryou snickered. "And don't think that I don't know that _your_ other half stowed away and left with several extra 'shiny things' as well, Bakura-san."

The albino 'eeped' and ducked behind Atemu, whose slightly taller stature had a better chance at hiding him than Yugi's.

"I'm fairly certain that none of us are harboring ancient spirits this time, Jii-san," the Egyptian said, crossing his arms over his chest as the two engaged in a staring contest. The pair typically got along fairly well, but sometimes Atemu tired of being treated as a teenager.

Finally, it was Sugoroku who broke the silence. "Fine, but I'm coming with you." He held up a hand before his grandson could so much as open his mouth. "No arguments. Either I go along or you stay in Japan."

Atemu mentally chuckled. /He reminds me of Simon more and more every day./

/Could be a reincarnation,/ Yugi put in, leaping forward to hug the man, babbling 'thank you's before running upstairs to pack. "Ryou, Atemu, come on!"

"So how many are going?" Kaiba asked the next day as he and Yugi sat in his home office.

The hikari thought for a bit. "Well, there's you and Mokuba, Ryou, Jii-san, Atemu and me. Bakura's already there so we don't have to worry about him. Anzu and Ryuji just got back from camp, so they'll be going. Honda and Jou wouldn't stay behind if we tied them to an anchor and threw it into Domino Bay. That's ten so far. Who am I forgetting?" He tossed the question to Atemu, who was at Ryou's house helping him pack for Egyptian weather.

/Mai and Shizuka./

/Thanks./ "Atemu added Mai and Shizuka," Yugi finished, adding them to his hastily written list.

"Twelve people, plus the mutt and helmet-headed shadow will want to bring their motorcycles," the CEO muttered, typing up their reservations. No need to use a private plane and attract attention when the commercial ones would work just as well. "We can leave tomorrow on a noon flight."

-

Bakura walked around in a half-circle, watching the points on his ring carefully for any changes. There were none. The cliff wall in front of him definitely hid the door to the Mejia's keep. But how to get inside…?

'Open sesame,' he said grandly in English. Nothing happened. "Hm, always works in the movies. Let's see. Open." Nadda. "-Open.-" The wall stubbornly remained solid and Bakura was starting to lose his patience. Gathering shadows around his fist, he swung at the wall, yelling, "-Ra damned door, open up or I'll send you and your entire fortress to the shadows!-" His fist met air as a wide archway appeared in the stone, nearly causing the thief to overbalance and fall flat on his face. He stared at it for a few moments. "Well, and Ryou says that threatening inanimate objects never makes them listen to you."

Smirking, Bakura pulled out the heavy cloak he'd packed in his bag in preparation for the chilly underground. Tomb keepers and Mejia alike were insane, living in places where the sun couldn't reach without the help of mirrored vents all over the place. The cloak also served the purpose of keeping ring and hair hidden, both of which would stand out a mile if he ever _was_ spotted by one of the mortal magic users.

"Didn't have permission to break into the Mejia fortress last time," he mused softly, pulling the hood up and stepping through the arch. It sealed itself behind him, leaving a solid stone wall framed by carvings of shadow creatures and topped with an all-too-familiar eye. "So, door, was it the shadows or the threat that opened you?"

When it offered no answer, Bakura shrugged and shouldered his bag before starting down the empty hall. The air there was stale, as was the magic save for his own, signifying that no one had been to that part of the fortress in some time: decades if not centuries.

Darker-than-usual corners hid the thief when he did start to see the local residents going about their business: a handful of relaxed guards chatted about a pretty girl; a group of young children ran past him after a ball, paying no attention despite the fact that they'd caught him uncloaked by shadows; and a young woman walked by alone, nose in a book. How she managed to avoid hitting any of the pillars scattered around everywhere was beyond him.

_Their security is pathetic_, he thought, resisting the urge to laugh since people would be sure to hear it if he did. He'd sat just outside the main council room for nearly an hour, twisting the shadows left in the forenamed room into playful activity. It wasn't enough for any of them to actually hurt any of the old Mejia inside, but it was definitely enough for them to notice and make them twitchy. This was all done from atop a pillar. _Sheesh, does no one ever look up these days? I'm not even hiding myself!_

Getting bored, Bakura stood and took off his cloak, giving in to his urge to laugh as he threw it down onto the heads of the two guards stationed in front of the door. The ring was safely hidden before they managed to fight their way out from under the heavy cloth and stare up at him in shock and anger.

"-Hello, stupid people,-" he greeted, grinning from his high-up position. There was no change in their expression. So they didn't understand ancient Egyptian, eh? "Man, you people have been lax in your education, haven't you? I doubt you can even read the glyphs carved into your own walls. Since you obviously didn't understand me earlier, we'll start over. Stupid people, and don't even think of denying the title because you're guards and all guards are stupid, go tell the old folks inside that someone a heck of a lot older than them, not to mention more powerful, wants to have a chat with them." He easily dodged the pair of spears thrown at him, sighing. "Look, I'm _trying_ to be polite here in not just barging in."

The two clearly weren't listening as they began to gather destructive magic between their now empty hands. Bakura rolled his eyes and summoned two spheres of shadows, sending them to envelope the guards' hands and magic, making them yelp in alarm. One of them spoke. "You have shadow magic!"

"So you recognize what it is; I'm surprised," the thief said, stepping off of the pillar to land easily on his feet. "Good. Now, go and announce me before I get angry."

He freed their hands and they fled into the chamber as though the hounds of the underworld were snapping at their heels. Bakura was close enough. Returning shortly after, they bowed, more out of fear than respect. "They are waiting for you, sir."

How tightly they gripped their new spears as he followed them in didn't escape Bakura's notice, not that spears had done the guards any good before.

Inside, eleven men in varying ages of thirty to eighty sat in a partial circle upon large cushions, all staring suspiciously at him as he entered. Bowing politely in the Japanese fashion, he sat cross legged in the center of the space left empty of the circle and waited for them to speak.

"-Greetings, shadow mage,-" the eldest said. He sat directly across from Bakura. "-We have not seen your kind since the nameless pharaoh sealed the realm of shadows, and did not expect to ever see one again.-"

"-We've pretty much been keeping to ourselves,-" Bakura replied.

Another, third to his left, raised an eyebrow. "-So the guards' report was correct. You _do_ speak the old tongue, and well enough to insult them.-"

"-Your old tongue is my first tongue,-" the tomb robber said, smirking. "-It's good to know that knowledge of it is not limited to shadow mages and tomb keepers, though your guards appear to be tragically ignorant of it.-"

"-More to the point, shadow mage, how did you gain your powers? The ability was lost with the sealing,-" the man to his right said, brow furrowed. He was easily the youngest there and barely looked thirty.

Scanning around the circle, Bakura smiled and revealed the ring, the expression turning into a grin as they recoiled back, eyes wide. Panic ensued.

"-The Millennium Ring!-"

"-The items were sealed!-"

"-How did he- ?-"

"-_Silence_!-"

All eyes turned to the oldest geezer, who didn't exactly look happy. He in turn was staring at Bakura as though attempting to read all of his secrets. "-Where did you get that item, shadow mage? And do not attempt to lie to us.-"

"-Originally?-" Bakura asked, tipping his head to the side. "-I stole it.-" He waited for geezer #1 to shut the others' cries of outrage again before continuing. "-Took it from the Priest Mahado when he got himself killed fighting me. Long time ago, that; messy too. Then I got sealed in the thing for three thousand years or so until I was freed just a couple of years ago. Became embodied again after that and now here I am, back in the land of my birth.-"

They were too shocked to voice their surprise this time and only sat in frozen silence, dark eyes impossibly wide as they watched the white-haired 'youth.' Shadows reached out to form familiar clothes and a deep red cloak around the thief's body.

"-Mejia, where do your loyalties lie after these thousands of years?-" he asked, breaking the silence as he stood, meeting each of their eyes.

"-With the pharaoh, Thief Bakura, as they always have,-" the eldest said, eyes narrowing. "-But there are no longer any pharaohs to be loyal to, which is why we remain hidden.-"

"-That is where you would be wrong,-" Bakura said. "-Of the spirits sealed with the shadows, I was not the only freed and embodied.-"

The elder struggled to his feet, refusing the help of the guard behind him to step forward and grab hold of Bakura's shoulders. "-Do you say what I think you do, old one?-"

Bakura nodded. "-I come to call the mejia to arms in the name of the nameless pharaoh, in the name of Pharaoh Atemu, arisen from the dead and returning to Egypt in less than ten days' time.-"

-

Word of Seth's vision spread through the camp like wildfire and his people's spirits rose in hope. Messengers carried it to the front, which he was told raised the feeling in the form of their battle cries. The gods were sending aid to their people in Egypt and with their help they would surely be victorious.

"-They call praises to you in their prayers, Seth,-" Isis said as she brought his meal. "-Surely you no longer doubt our chances?-"

"-Would but sealing the shadows had not stopped your visions of the future, I would relax a little,-" Seth said, staring into his cup of wine for traces of poison. With the war taking so many, they could not spare a taster. "-Did I tell you whose eyes I saw at the end of my dream?-"

"-You did not give any of us many details,-" she reminded him, pouring herself a glass of the wine once he had taken a sip himself. "-Only that you saw an old enemy turned ally and a stranger loyal before the eyes appeared.-"

A slow smile crept onto the pharaoh's face and he waited for her to take another sip. "-The enemy was thief king Bakura.-"

Her reaction was exactly as he'd planned: Isis choked and sputtered, roughly pounding her chest. When she could speak again, she glared at Seth. "-You did that on purpose!-"

Seth drew himself up in a mockery of the position he held when addressing the people. "-Priestess, you dare to accuse Pharaoh of indulging in such childish antics as that?-" He raised an eyebrow for good measure.

"Ra, you look just like when Atemu used to when we were children and I'd catch him hiding from Mahado in those giant vases all around the palace,-" she said, laughing hopelessly. "-But really, childish pranks aside, who was the turned enemy?-"

"-Isis, the prank was the timing, not the name,-" Seth said, growing serious once again. "-I did see Bakura in the service of my cousin. You know that there never could be any mistaking him, even if he did wear strange clothes in my dream. The other man, the stranger, was dressed as the head of a desert clan and had an appearance that was nearly as strange. Hair between the color of the sun and that of the tomb robber's, and eyes as violet as my cloak, Isis.-"

"-And this was the man who carried Shada's scales?-" Isis asked for confirmation. Seth nodded. "-But what of his eyes, since you've been so focused on them of late?-"

"-Who did we know, my old friend, who bore eyes the color of pooled blood?-" he asked, meeting her startled gaze. "-In my dream, Atemu was watching me from the far reaches of the afterlife itself and said 'we are coming.'-"

"-We?-" the priestess repeated weakly, eyes wide. "-But it is impossible for one of the dead to return to the world of the living.-"

Seth sighed. "-I know, which is what had me so puzzled. It is possible that, after passing from this world and joining the gods, Atemu was referring to 'we' in the sense of the gods' aid and not himself in particular. However, I would hope to see him again and have his guidance in these times.-"

"-It is something that we should all hope for,-" Isis said, briefly resting a hand on the royal shoulder. A playful light entered her eyes. "-Who knows, perhaps if you have another nap, you will have another vision.-"

"-First you bring me my food, and then you tell me that I must sleep,-" he snorted, pointedly _not_ rolling his eyes. "-If I did not know better, Isis, I would think that you were attempting to baby me. But I will overlook your offense, this time. Walk with me. I would see my people.-"

Isis had to move quickly in order to keep up with Seth's stride as the two of them left his tent and stepped into the afternoon sun. Those that they passed stopped and bowed low to the living god and high priestess, who paid them little notice as they discussed (no one in the pharaoh's court ever 'chatted') the armies' movements as well as Shu, the new high priest to fill Seth's position, and Geb, the new magician to fill Mahado's.

"-They show such arrogance, strutting with every step as though the very sand beneath their sandals worshipped them,-" Isis said once she was sure neither priest was within hearing range. "-Not even _you_ ever got that bad when you were high priest, and you are still not as arrogant now as pharaoh.-"

"-Well what can you expect from a pair of priests who were named after gods?-" Seth asked, smirking. The pair shared a glance before laughing openly and drawing no small number of looks from the surrounding people.

"-It is good to see the both of you smiling and laughing again,-" Shada said as the two approached him. "-I had feared that you would forever be full of gloom, not to mention cranky.-"

"-You know, if I was any other pharaoh, I would have had you banished for such a remark,-" the pharaoh said wryly.

"-Ah, but fortunately you are not any other pharaoh,-" Shada said. "-You are Pharaoh Seth, third in a run of pharaohs possessing a good-natured sense of humor, even with your namesake. Come, and see if you can make sense of the latest report I received. For all honestly, generals should be required to pass tests in their writing skills.-"

-------

1. Shu and Geb respectively were the Egyptian gods of air and earth.


	3. Armies Assembling

A/N: Yay, the new chapter's finished:Waves the flag of the fanfiction nation: The three groups are slowly meeting together, though it'll still be some time before Seth's army joins up with the others. I really hope that you, my readers, like this fanfiction, as it won't leave me alone even if I did want to stop it (which I don't, so no worries). Read and review!

Return of the King

Chapter Three

Armies Assembling

Atemu nearly had to carry his hikari to the airport in the morning. The younger puzzle holder had spent the previous night running around the city helping the others get ready, which included convincing Mai to shake down her luggage to one suitcase and a carry-on and that all of the girls should leave their high heals in Japan, along with their miniskirts.

"Long night?" the ticket checker asked with a smile, nodding to the sleepy teenager. "He looks dead on his feet."

Atemu snorted, digging out their identification, his own compliments of a combination of Kaiba and Isuzu's influence. "You try arranging a trip to Egypt for twelve people in one night."

The man shook his head in amusement. Taking a glance at their ID's, his eyes widened. "You're Yugi and Atemu Mouto? Wow, this is amazing. I'm a big fan. Can I have your autograph?"

A deep chuckle sounded from behind them. "Can't go anywhere without finding your fans, can you, Mouto?"

"Was wondering where you'd wandered off to, Kaiba," Atemu said, not bothering to turn around. "Jou's mad at you, by the way."

"When isn't the puppy angry with me?" Kaiba asked, ignoring the wonderful impression their ticket taker was doing of a fish. "He should be glad that he isn't riding with the luggage. They normally don't allow dogs in the seating areas." He turned to the man. "Give us your address and we'll mail them to you."

"Yeah, and we'll make Marik sign it too when we get there," Yugi said before yawning and slumping back against his darker half. "And Bakura."

/Stay awake, aibou/ Atemu sent, shaking the boy's shoulder. /You can sleep on the plane./

The three of them boarded, leaving behind one young man thanking the gods that he'd taken that job after all.

As it turned out, their group of twelve had been split up fifty-fifty between coach and first class, the Kaiba brothers, puzzle bearers, Ryou, and Ryuji possessing first class tickets while the rest flew third class, hence the reason Jou wasn't exactly happy with Seto. When asked to explain, he'd said simply that the people in first were the people he could stand to sit near for the eight hours that their flight would take.

"Who's meeting us at the airport?" the millionaire asked Atemu across the aisle, speaking quietly as not to wake up Yugi or Mokuba, both of which had promptly fallen asleep upon getting seated. Ryou and Ryuji played a silence game of Dungeon Dice Monsters. It was hard to tell just who had the edge.

"Ishizu," the ancient pharaoh replied. "Marik and Rashid are talking to their clan for Bakura while he searches for the Mejia."

"He's already found them," Ryou said, speaking up from their game as he set a die. "Plan is to start traveling tomorrow morning. Was bragging about how much better he is at gathering troops than you."

Atemu rolled his eyes. "I knew he had another reason for leaving you with us then speed of travel. This way he can boast while still hundreds of miles away."

"And eavesdrop," the albino agreed, shaking his head as he felt his other withdraw quickly from where he'd been caught listening in using Ryou's ears.

"So do either of you know exactly how we're going to get to wherever it is we're going once we all meet up at Ishtar's place?" Ryuji asked, playing a final turn and winning the game. "You never really explained that part to me."

"It wasn't exactly explained to us either," Atemu said. "We'll just have to hope Bakura knows what he's doing and that things turn out well."

-

Clan head Taita had never thought that spirits, embodied or no, could sneeze, but Bakura had just done exactly that before pointed glaring east and muttering a curse in Japanese.

"-Are you ill, thief Bakura?-" he asked, pulling his horse parallel to that of the albino's. Could spirits get sick?

"-No,-" Bakura said shortly. "-It just means that someone's talking about me. Old Japanese superstition.-"

"-May I ask how you came to be in Japan?-" Taita asked, curious. "-I would have thought that you would have stayed in Egypt.-"

The thief king smiled. "-It's simple really. I followed Ryou.-"

His answer didn't alleviate any of the younger man's curiosity. If anything, it opened up dozens of new questions. Who, or what, was Ryou?

"-My former host,-" Bakura said, startling Taita. Seeing his confusion, the spirit of the ring grinned. "-Ryou. He was my host from the time of my being freed to my gaining of my own body. You'll meet him soon. He's with the pharaoh right now.-"

"-Did the pharaoh have a host as well?-" Taita asked, eager to find out everything he could about the figures of near myth he'd heard of as a child.

"-Yeah, that would be Yugi,-" Bakura said with a yawn. They'd left too early in the morning for his liking. "Short brat who needs a stool to see over the counter in his grandfather's shop." He could feel his other's amusement. /Sneezed, didn't he/

A sigh. /Yes. That really wasn't nice though. He was sleeping./

/All the more entertaining/ he said, snapping to attention as a hand waved in his face. "-What?-"

"-You looked like the sun had gotten to you,-" Taita said, pulling back his hand. "-It would make a poor impression on the pharaoh if we arrived and you were ill.-"

Bakura snorted. "-Actually, he'd probably throw you a party. We may be allies, but we hardly like each other like each other. But of course, it _would_ get Ryou upset, which would in turn get Yugi upset, and Atemu hates it when Yugi's upset, so maybe it's not such a good idea after all for you.-"

Jihad, the third eldest of the clan heads, rode up to them. "-Shadow mage, for a thief, you make a lot of noise.-"

"-Believe me, old man, if I were stealing something right now, you wouldn't know I was here,-" Bakura said, glancing at the distant mountains and making a few calculations in his head. "-At this pace, we should get to the Tomb Keepers' Valley in two days, tops.-"

-

It was twelve very stiff people that got off of the plane in Alexandria, though six were a little stiffer than the others.

"I'll get you for that, Kaiba," Jou yelled as soon as the two halves of the group had reassembled. "How come they got first class?"

Seto calmly looked down at the blond. "I owe Atemu and Yugi a dept, Ryuji is an occasional partner in business, and I would like to avoid the tantrum Bakura would throw if he knew I had put Ryou is a lower class seat than Yugi. You, on the other hand, simply irritate me."

Anzu and Honda grabbed hold of Jou before he could attack the CEO, dragging him several feet away before releasing him, but only once Yugi had moved between the two. Business as usual.

"Hey, isn't that Ishtar-san?" Ryuji asked, squinting against the sun into the crowd of people waiting their friends and family to debark. They followed his pointing arm and sure enough, Ishizu stood there between two large men who stood over her protectively. They made their way over to her as a group.

"I welcome you back to Egypt, my Pharaoh," she said, bowing to Atemu and then to Yugi. The men with her followed suit. "My prince."

Yugi flushed. "Ishizu, I thought that I told you not to call me that. It's not like I'm of royal blood or anything."

"Not of blood perhaps, Mouto-san, but you are of royal soul, and you cannot deny that," Ishizu countered with a smile, glance sliding to Atemu as the spirit stood a little bit apart from them, letting the warmth of the sun seep into his skin. It had been too long. "How was your flight?"

"Yugi wouldn't know," Ryou teased. "He slept through most of it."

"Really?" Mai asked, surprised. "With him and Kaiba sitting near each other, I would have thought that they'd have been dueling through the entire flight."

"Was too tired," Yugi said with a yawn, still a little groggy. He looked up toward the two strangers. "Um… hi?"

"I'm afraid that they don't speak Japanese, Yugi," Ishizu said before she began the introductions. ">Nefferani, Sinuhe, it is my honor to introduce to you Pharaoh Atemu, Prince Yugi Mouto, as much as he denies his title, and High Priest Seto Kaiba.>" Dropping a lot of the formality, she continued to name the others, starting with Mokuba and Ryou, who the two guards gave a wary look to. "Follow me. The car is this way."

"Your heads of security?" Seto asked, falling into step with the woman once her guards had moved to flank the puzzle bearers instead.

"Two of our three," Ishizu said, nodding. "I thought it wise to leave one behind to watch over things. If the mejia should arrive while I am away, I would not it to appear as though we had become soft in our years since leaving them." She correctly read his raised eyebrow. "Yes, the Ishtar clan used to be a mejia clan, and one of the oldest. All twelve clans were once said to be descendent from Isis herself."

"The priestess or the goddess?" he asked, corners of his mouth twitching.

"The goddess, thank goodness," she laughed. "The priestess had no children, though she _was_ born from the Ishtar mejia clan. On the other hand, it was her younger brother who led our clan to guard the Pharaoh's tomb. Are you familiar with the American song, 'I'm My Own Grandpa'?"

"We know it!" Mokuba and Jou chimed in. Agreements from Mai, Ryuji, Ryou and Yugi soon followed.

-

Seth wasn't sleeping easily. Since the first, his dreams had not stopped, no matter what he may have hinted to Isis, but no longer held their former clarity, or their original feeling of encouragement.

Pictures of the desert clan leader were accompanied by a child's screams, and it seemed as though the shadows held a tight grip on him, but not as tight as the one they held on the thief, who wrapped himself around a light. Whether the albino was trying to protect the light or smother it, Seth couldn't tell, but he could tell that it was something sacred. When his drifting mind sought to see Atemu himself, a white light blinded him, brilliant and terribly beautiful.

It was the light that woke him up before sunrise, gasping for breath. But it wasn't the light that kept him from being able to regain said breath. The very air was shifting, slowly starting to move in a pattern that Egypt had not felt since Atemu's death.

"-Pharaoh!-" Geb called out, worried, as he and Shu burst into his tent, still dressed for sleep without even kohl to trace their eyes. Isis and Shada were quick on their heels "-We felt the magic. Are you alright?-"

"-Isis, why did I feel the shadows?-" Seth asked, staring fearfully up at them, trembling. "-Atemu sealed them, gave his life doing it, so why did I feel them?-"

"-Pharaoh, you must calm yourself, if just so that you are able to battle against them if we must when the time comes. You are pale,-" Isis said, laying a calming hand on his shoulder. The newer two of the priests shuffled uneasily at seeing someone, even a high priestess, treat the living god with such familiarity. "-Shu, Geb, some wine and bread, even if it's stale.-"

"-What do I have to battle them with?-" the pharaoh asked, staring down at his hands. "-It took all of even my cousin's shadow magic and soul to seal them, with our aid at that. I am short when it comes to all three elements. My shadow magic is gone, no one has ever claimed to possess the size of Atemu's soul, especially not in those times, and he, Mahado, my father, and even Mahado's apprentice have passed into the shadows.-" He lowered his voice so that Geb and Shu, fussing with the wine on the other side of the tent, wouldn't hear him. "-I wonder if I received a false vision; if it inspired hope where there was no cause for any.-"

"-Seth, where is the confidence I saw when you were first appointed high priest?-" Shada asked. "-We need that confidence now more than ever. You will not fail us. Everything will turn out for us.-"

But the air with its magic hadn't settled down by morning, or even by mid-day, and it was making even the warhorses antsy. Added to the weight of the casualty lists in the daily reports from his armies, Seth could almost feel the world crushing him.

-

Bakura reined his horse to a stop, motioning for the others behind him to do the same. A suspiciously fast moving dust cloud was moving towards them from over the ridge where he knew the Tomb Keepers' Valley to be hidden.

"-What is that?-" Taita asked, staring at it.

The spirit smiled. "-I have my suspicions that you may want to move back a little bit.-"

Sending a nervous glance to the dust cloud, Taita quickly did as suggested. He nearly fell off of his own when a horse burst from the cloud less than ten feet away from them, bearing two cloaked riders. The larger prepared to throw the smaller, whose cloak was, oddly enough, red.

"-Bakura, catch!-"

The thief laughed as he shot an arm out to catch the smaller person in red around the waist, pulling him up to sit in front of him on the horse. The rider remaining on the horse threw back his hood, allowing blond hair to shine in the sun. Violet eyes grinned at them.

"Ishtar, if you ever try that again with my hikari, I will fillet you," Bakura said between bursts of laughter. "If you try that with Atemu's hikari, however, I may be tempted to drop him."

The name Ishtar ran whispered through the caravan, especially among the elders and clan heads. But each and every one, the line having curved to form a circle around the three, was shocked into silence as the red-cloaked boy pulled down his hood, revealing a face that with the exception of color and age, was identical to that of Bakura.

"-Ba and ka standing together?-" Jihad whispered, staring at them in amazement.

"-How is that possible?-" Taita asked, equally startled.

">Hey mejia, meet Ryou. He's under my protection so don't even think about touching him. Ryou, meet the mejia,>" Bakura called out, gesturing to the entirety of the caravan. ">And this is Marik Ishtar, head of the Ishtar clan of tomb keepers.>" He turned to the blond. "Is the baka ready to greet them?"

"We even got Seto into a robe," Marik said, nodding with a grin. "Threatened to burn the headdress if we made him wear it though."

"There a reason Ryou's dressed as a mini-me?" the thief asked, resting his chin on the named boy's head.

"Ryuji's idea, wanted to up the effect when people see me," Ryou said. He smiled, the expression seemingly better suited for yami than hikari. "Seems to have worked."

Bakura ruffled the other's hair. "That's it, you've been spending too much time with me now. Start hanging around Yugi and remind yourself what a hikari is supposed to be like." He twisted around to face the mejia. ">Come on, let's get going again. Follow Ishtar. We're riding ahead. I've got to see this.>"

A visibly amused Bakura met them at the stone ruins under which was hidden the city of the tomb keepers. Several large tents had already been set up as Ishizu directed what promised to be a feast.

">I welcome you to our home, cousins,>" she said, smiling. ">I hope my brother hasn't caused you _too_ many worries.>"

">Sister, I was only among them for two hours,>" Marik said, defending himself. ">How much trouble could I cause in that time?>"

Seto stepped out of the largest of the tents just as the blond was speaking. He quirked an eyebrow. ">Plenty. You're an Ishtar. Ishtars cause trouble.>"

Marik laughed, turning to the mejia as they dismounted. ">My sister, Ishizu, and our beloved high priest, Seto Kaiba, reincarnation of High Priest Seth.> So, where did Yugi and Atemu wander off to?"

"They're still in there," Seto said, nodding his head in the direction of the tent he'd just left. "Ishizu decided that it'd be best to present them _after_ the feast."

When darkness fell and the torches were lit, the twelve clans combined along with those who had been dubbed as Atemu's court created a noise in their feasting so large that it echoed against the mountains. It was hardly any quieter in the royal tent, but, tired of being in the center of attention for a while, Atemu and Yugi were rather glad to be apart from the revelry.

"How did you handle this back in your Egypt?" Yugi asked, peeking through a gap in the curtain. "I think I'd go insane after a month."

"You should have seen it during the festival of Osiris," Atemu said, chuckling. He took a sip of the wine Ishizu had brought them with their meal. "Or the hippopotamus hunts dedicated to Happi. Or-"

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Yugi cut him off, laughing. "It gets a lot worse. And now we see why you are pharaoh and I am game shop clerk."

The noise outside died down suddenly and Seto entered the tent a moment later. "They're waiting."

Atemu nodded and the three left, Yugi on Atemu's left and half a step back, and Seto to his right and a half step behind the prince. Dressed in the full regatta of the ancient Egyptian court, they looked nothing short of godly, the torchlight making both gold and silk glow. As Bakura had done with the mejia, the pharaoh stopped to stand in the circle's empty space.

_I have done what you have asked, Lord Ra_, he thought, clearing his throat. _It is now your turn_. Opening crimson eyes and pulling on the shadows to make him understood by all, he began to speak.


	4. Chasing Shadows

A/N: Yay, chapter four is now complete and it is one-thirty in the morning. Sleep? What's that? Anyway, insert your standard disclaimer here. Oh, one last thing. I'm don't remember who pointed out the mistake with Ishizu's name, but you know who you are, so thanks. Truthfully, I couldn't remember her exact name and was feeling too lazy to look it up, so I picked something that almost sounded right. Fixed it in the earlier chapters too. On with the chapter.

"Return of the King"

Chapter Four

Chasing Shadows

When there was only silence from over the hill, Seth feared the worse. A messenger had burst into his tent that morning with a desperate plea for aid from one of his generals. Now, arriving as soon as they'd been able, he thought that they had been too late.

Two of his soldiers crawled up the hill to hide in the tall grasses and peer over the crest. When they stood to face their camp, the men's faces were pale.

"-It is not possible,-" one said. "-Lord Pharaoh, you should see this with your own eyes.-"

With Isis and Shada at his side, Seth climbed the hill to see over it to the battlefield beyond.

It was carnage. Bodies, and pieces of them, were strewn across the ground. The pharaoh set his jaw and moved to walk among them despite the blood staining his clothing.

"-Not one of them is Egyptian, Seth,-" Isis whispered, staying close. "They are all of the enemy's armies. But still, the messenger said that they were losing. Who killed these men?-"

Shada spoke up from several feet away, his eyes locked on the corpse of a man who was clearly the other general. He bent down to trace the eye that had been carved into his forehead.

"-I believe that the aid you dreamed of has arrived, old friend,-" he said, unable to take his eyes off of the bloody one.

"-Why would Atemu send the shadows when it was he who sealed them?-" Isis asked, fear slipping into her voice. "-Is it possible that the eyes you saw were not that of your cousin but those of a demon?-"

Seth shook his head. "-No, they were Atemu's eyes, and I sensed no evil at all in that dream, even with Bakura's presence in it. Besides, take a look at the corpses. These men were killed by blade, Mejia, and shadow magic. Even if the shadows did devour their souls, that was not all that killed them.-" He prodded one particularly ragged body with a foot, smirking. "-This one looks as though he was taken down by a lowly dog, and a mutt at that.-"

-

A day's travel by mortal horseback away, Jounouchi Katsuya sneezed. The moment's distraction was used to knock the blond soundly onto the ground and hold him there at sword point.

"You're dead, Inu, again," Seto said coolly, his attitude a vast difference to the weather around them.

"Why are you the one teaching me anyway?" Jou demanded, shoving the dull practice sword away from his throat and sitting up. He glared up at the brunette. "I held my own fine in battle earlier."

Seto leaned over him, propped nonchalantly on his sword. "Believe, me mutt, I'd rather teach _Mazaki_ sword techniques than you but, whether I like it or not, our 'soul beasts' are a matched set. In case your feeble mind cannot comprehend that, it means that they are strongest when combined, so it is imperative that we know each other's fighting styles inside and out so that _we_ can fight as a unit. And since your idea of using a sword consists of swinging it around like a maniac in the hopes that it hits something vital on an enemy, and not an ally, I need to at least attempt to bring you up near to my level. Now stand up and get into position. Guard!"

"They seem to be getting along nicely," Atemu commented, a smile touching his lips. "And Kaiba's certainly enjoying having the right to beat up on Jou without one of us coming and stopping him."

Beside him, Yugi grinned. "I just hope he remembers to leave him intact enough to enter battle again tomorrow morning."

"Jou's too stubborn to stay in bed enough even if he got his leg chopped off by those practice swords," the pharaoh said.

"They'd have to get pretty carried away in order for that to happen," Yugi said.

"With those two, I wouldn't be surprised." Eyes on his brother, Mokuba stopped beside the prince. "Jou and Nii-san have been at each others' throats since junior high."

"It's a little like you and Seth," the hikari suggested to his other half. Glancing up, he ducked just in time to avoid colliding with the airborne Change of Heart, who handed him a note as soon as she landed. "Bakura and Ryou found our missing regiment. They're hiding behind the foothills to the south, half a day's march."

Atemu nodded. "Mokuba, spread the word around. The troops are to gather their gear and have it ready. We'll set out at dusk. Everyone should rest until then."

"You too, then," Yugi said, giving his yami a slight push toward the royal tent. "I'll go break them up, but you'd better be asleep by the time I get there."

-

The missing dead and alive of the army who'd called for help was found the next morning, stilling shaking from the sight of the battle.

"-They came wrapped in the shadows of Pharaoh Atemu's reign, crashing down on us from everywhere, even the sky,-" the general described, hands clenched tightly around the wine he'd been given to sooth his nerves. "-We had thought that the enemy had summoned a horde of demons before they began to slaughter them, and not us. In the center of their masses were two figures shrouded completely in shadows. At their sides were two lights, as bright as the others were dark. The army of men and beasts washed over us and then left as they had come.-"

"-Describe some of the beasts you saw,-" Seth ordered, leaning foreword.

"-A flying specter in black robes that bore a scythe, a ball of fur with eyes and claws that exploded upon impact, a man-shaped one in purple armor who blasted his enemies with his staff, a trio of women who looked more like birds, a--"

"-Stop. What was that last one?-" Isis demanded, her face pale.

"-The bird woman?-" the general asked, a quizzical expression on his face.

"-No, the one in the armor,-" she clarified.

"-I did not see him myself,-" the man stuttered, eyes casting. "-He was described to me by one of my men. Do you wish to speak to him?-"

"-Bring him before Us immediately,-" Seth barked, impatient.

When the soldier was ushered into the royal tent, it was clear that he was fresh from the healers', bandages covering a large portion of his chest. Upon seeing both Pharaoh and high priestess, he fell to the floor in a bow, forehead pressed to the ground.

"-Your Pharaoh would have you describe the creature you saw in purple armor,-" Isis said. "-You may kneel.-"

The man rose to his knees, eyes downcast. "-He was not more than an arm's length from me, my lords, my lady. I saw his face clearly. Within the helmet, he looked as a noble of Egypt, with hair cut to his shoulders, brown. His eyes were dark gray and lined with kohl.-"

"-What of his armor and weapons?-" the priestess prompted.

"-It was, as you said, purple, and covered most of his body in plates, allowing for movement, down to his feet, with a helmet that arched over his head.-" The soldier paused to think. "-He used a sort of pointed staff as a weapon, sending out blasts of… dark light? I can think of no other way to describe it, my lords.-"

Seth and Isis' hearts clenched, but neither gave any sign of it as the priestess went forward with the interrogation. "-Did you notice any other creatures specifically fighting at his side?-"

The man's eyes widened in surprise. "-Yes. One very similar to him, but a young girl in blue armor.-"

"-That will be all,-" Seth said, speaking for the first time. The soldier, recognizing a clear dismissal, stood and walked backwards from the tent as quickly as possible. Alone, Seth turned to Isis and Shada, who'd watched silently from the corner. "-There is no doubt now. No one other than my cousin could ever send Mahado's sealed soul into battle.-"

Shada's face was grim. "-The shadows have returned to aid us. But what will happen to Egypt once they have defeated this enemy?-"

"-Let us worry about one problem at a time, Shada, and leave the shadows to their caller,-" Seth said, reaching for a quill and sheet of papyrus. "-For now, we must tell the others that the shadows are not their enemy.-"

It was a few days later when the rumors began to reach Seth's ears. Whispers of crimson eyes, sometimes violet. Of Atemu.

"-They're saying that my cousin has returned from death itself,-" Seth said, head bowed with hands gripping his hair in frustration. "-I know that it cannot be true but, by Ra, I want to believe them.-"

"-It pains me to repeat this, old friend, but Atemu is dead, and the dead cannot return to life,-" Shada said, laying a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "-The rumors are merely that: rumors.-"

"-I know!-" Seth snapped, pushing the priest back. Then, quieter, he repeated: "-I know.-"

-

"You know, this is really creepy," Mokuba commented from his position draped over a chair. "The two of you look similar enough normally."

"At least you're not the one who had to get your ears pierced," Yugi grumbled, holding deadly still as Marik traced his eyes in kohl. "These things are heavy."

Atemu chuckled. "You'll get used to them, Aibou. We cannot skip any detail if Seth is going to believe you me, even at a distance. I would go myself, but…"

"But you have an army to lead," Seth finished, suppressing a smirk. Watching Yugi become a near clone of the pharaoh was far too amusing to miss, especially when it came to the amount of gold he was expected to wear. "We could have sent Bakura. One sight of him would have sent the entire camp running after him."

"And that would be the exact reason that we are _not_ sending the tomb robber or Ryou," Atemu said dryly. When Marik stood back, the royal circled his hikari and nodded in approval before fixing a copy of his own winged crown in place. "We want a chance to explain things to Seth before confronting the entirety of his armies, and this is the best way we could come up with."

"-Prince Yugi, you horse is ready,-" a man, one of Marik's clan, announced from the door.

Stepping down from the stool he'd used to be on height with Marik, Yugi sighed. "-Would it be pointless to ask you not to call me that again?-"

The man's smirk didn't quite fit with his subservient bow. "-Of course, your highness.-"

"Good luck, and return to us safely," Atemu said as he helped Yugi to mount. "Call to me when you are near and Mahado will guide you in."

The younger duelist grinned. "Just keep a pair of cots ready for us and burn cream for me. I'll see you in a few days."

-

Seth was awoken late at night by footsteps in the sand and the heavy curtain of his tent behind pushed aside. He held still, feigning sleep, and listened.

The intruder made little to no attempt at hiding his footfalls as he made his way to Seth's bedside. The young pharaoh, trying to figure out how his unannounced visitor made it past the guards posted outside, tensed when cool fingers brushed across his brow, pushing stray hairs away from his face. Warm breath tickled his ear as the intruder spoke in a barely audible whisper. "-I know you're awake, Seth. I've used that trick too many times myself to be fooled by it. No, don't open your eyes yet, cousin.-"

Keeping his eyes clamped shut despite the urge to snap them open, Seth trembled. "-Atemu?-"

He could almost feel the other's smile, like an early rising of Ra in the room. The touch left his face and curtains rustled. "-Seth, open your eyes and follow me!-"

Blue eyes flew open and the former priest shot up. Footprints ran from his bedside to the still-moving curtain. They were small, like a child's, and looked to have first wandered over to his desk before heading to him.

Without taking the time to so much as pull on a pair of sandals, Seth ran from his tent, head jerking in every direction to catch sight of where Atemu, or at least his spirit, and had moved to. A glimmer of white and gold flickered before vanishing around to the other side of a soldier's tent and Seth clearly heard the sound of a horse.

"-Pharaoh, what are you doing?-" Geb asked, running from his own tent, confusion and worry written all over his face. The others were not far behind.

"-Isis, Shada, I saw him!-" he gasped out, not stopping in his run across the camp. He couldn't lose him! "-Atemu!-"

"-Seth, this is merely a trick. Don't follow it!-" Shada urged, trying to catch up to the royal.

"-I have to see clearly for myself,-" Seth said. "-Do not follow me. That is an order from your pharaoh!-"

Stunned, the four stopped, helplessly watching as the man vanished from sight. Watching the top of a dune Seth had disappeared behind, Isis suddenly gasped.

"-What is it?-" Shada asked.

The woman was too shocked to answer. Instead, she pointed. Following the direction indicated, the man felt his heart skip a beat. There, atop a horse, rode a man whose silhouette they knew all too well. "-Atemu…-"

-

As dawn approached, Yugi kept tossing glances back to make sure that he had not lost the new pharaoh and that he wasn't getting close enough to see that he wasn't Atemu, not exactly. They knew that Yugi _felt_ like Atemu, at least to anyone who hadn't felt his aura since his original death, so even if Seth had retained some sort of magic after the sealing of the shadows, they would be covered for some time still.

It worried him a little that Seth hadn't brought any supplies, but it was far too late to change that. If the man collapsed, the young prince would just have to find a way to get him up onto the horse and carry him along that way.

"He didn't even bring any water," Yugi mumbled to himself, chewing a lip. "What would Seto say?"

Squinting against the sun, Seth could barely make out that Atemu had turned to look at him once again, his horse continuing at its slow pace. Even with Ra having risen only an hour ago, the desert was already beginning to heat up drastically, as was the sand, making him curse his lack of sandals.

It was nearly noon before he walked past an outcropping of rock that gave off some shade. Tearing longing eyes from it to peer across the sand at his cousin, Seth paused. Just in sight, Atemu was dismounting from his horse, clearly giving the mere mortal man a break. As much as he wanted to, Seth figured that if he tried to catch up to him now, the spirit would start to ride away again, and he'd lose his chance to rest. Heaving a heavy sigh, he flopped down in the shaded sand, falling asleep quickly.

Smiling at the dead-to-the-world expression Seth wore in his sleep, Yugi snuck up to him with a water sac and cloak. He'd have given the Egyptian a pair of sandals as well, but somehow he didn't think that his would fit the six-foot-some tall man. Nodding in approval with what he was able to do for now, the prince returned to his horse to tend it while he waited for Seth to wake up.

When the former high priest began to stir, some time near sunset, the first thing he noticed was the feel of cloth covering him that he knew hadn't been there before, and that his hand was curled around the familiar shape of a water skin. Eyes flew to where Atemu had stopped, and he breathed a sigh of relief to see that his cousin was still there and, to all appearances, watching him.

He drank a few mouthfuls of the water, saving most of it, and fixed the cloak gratefully around his shoulders. Fastening it closed, his fingers felt something and he started. Opening it back up to look at the inside, he gasped upon recognizing the stitches he'd sewn into it before giving the cloak as a gift to the pharaoh when they were children. Glancing back to where Atemu was nimbly climbing onto his horse's back, he noticed the new lack of cloak on the dead pharaoh. Even after death, he had carried it?

This continued on for several days, during which time both males ran out of water. For Yugi, it wasn't as terrible, seeing as he wasn't walking, but Seth was another thing entirely. The duelist watched carefully as the older man's walking path began to weave slightly and he slowed down, stopping every few minutes to wide his brow. When he collapsed, Yugi was ready.

As his head swam in the heat, Seth clearly heard the sound of an approaching horse. It stopped and a pair of feet landed in the sand near his head. Once gain, cool fingers felt his brow and Atemu spoke to him. "-Don't worry, I have you. You're safe. Mahado, lead us in.-"

He thought that he might have heard another man's voice answer as unconsciousness claimed him, but there was no way to separate heat visions from reality. He did not fear though. Atemu would protect him while he rested. He was sure of it.


	5. Reunion

A/N: Behold, a new chapter has been posted. Everyone give praise to the lovely two-tailed coffee goddess for her being the source of my inspiration. Slices of lemon pound cake to whoever can guess her name. Anyway, a question was raised in a review last chapter about why a good few of the characters are suddenly "military prodigies." I actually have an answer for that. For those who were either reincarnated from Egypt or have a yami, they'd remember enough of warfare or, for the latter half, have excellent teachers to know how to lead an army. Even for the others, Jou, Honda, Marik, ect, they're duelists. That fact alone means that they have to be strong strategists. So it makes sense, to me at least. Lets see, the number question's answered in the chapter, Ra knows how they got to ancient Egypt (Literally. He took them.)... anything else? Alright then, moving on with the chapter. I hope you enjoy.

Return of the King

Chapter Five

Reunion

Marik glanced up from the spread-out charts to examine his pharaoh. "You seem more relaxed. Did Yugi contact you?"

The red-eyed man nodded, smiling. "Mahado's already with him and Seth. You can hardly blame me for being paranoid about Yugi being pretty much alone in the desert for the first time."

"I can't wait to see Seth's expression when he sees Bakura," the former holder of the millennium rod chuckled. "Or Kaiba. Any bets on whether or not he'll faint? Atemu? Bakura?"

"Two gold rings on his fainting upon seeing Kaiba," Atemu offered, smirking.

Bakura sorted through the various pieces of jewelry he wore before tapping his earrings. "These on him not. If he can stand up against me, he can handle a bit of shock. What about you, Ishtar?"

"I'm afraid that I'm going to have to side with Atemu on this one," the tomb keeper said. Considering, he touched his gold choker. "I'll this on the line."

"Honestly boys, gambling?" Ishizu asked, ducking into the tent. "Shouldn't you be working on strategy?"

"Hm. Not until Kaiba and Mahado get back here," Marik said, jotting down the bets. "You want to join in?"

The woman laughed. "I think that I'd better not. May get a vision mid-bet and that would be cheating. You should ask Jou."

"Can't," Atemu said, shaking his head. "He's on patrol until tomorrow."

"And his holiness himself can't bet because he's involved," Bakura concluded with a shrug.

/Atemu, we're back/

Grinning, the pharaoh hurried from the tent to greet his hikari and cousin. Catching sight of them, however, he stopped with a frown. Yugi was fine, if looking a little worn, but Seth's position draped over the back of the horse suggested otherwise for the dragon caller. "What happened?"

"Little fool forgot to bring any traveling gear, not ever sandals or a cloak," Mahado said, gently easing the unconscious man from the horse. "Master Yugi lent him his, but there was still the issue of water."

"With some fluids and a little rest, he should be fine," Yugi assured his yami, stumbling a little before the taller man caught him. "Thanks. I'm a bit low too, so could I get a drink and that cot now?"

Atemu chuckled, helping Yugi toward their tent with Mahado bearing Seth close behind. "Of course. You've done a wonderful job. You deserve some rest."

-

A cool, damp cloth was lying over his eyes when Seth awoke. He drew breath to speak, his throat parched. "-Water.-"

A hand helped him to lift his head as a cup was brought to his lips. The water was cool and sweet, but there was an underlying bitterness to it. Sputtering, he tried to shove the cup away.

"-Calm yourself, Seth, it will help your throat to heal,-" a hauntingly familiar voice said, distinctly amused. "-If we wanted you dead, we'd have killed you as soon as you lost consciousness. Honestly, I'd of thought that you would have known better than to follow after a cloaked man into the desert without sword or even a water skin.-"

Seth opened his eyes as the cloth was removed, and stared up into the face of a dead man. Kind eyes looked down on him and he felt his heart stop. "-Mahado?-"

The ghost nodded. "-It is good to hear you speak, old friend.-"

The pharaoh struggled to sit up, his mind racing. He briefly entertained the idea that the previous year had been a horrible nightmare born of misplaced ambition. Mahado, a man he knew to be dead and sealed along with the other shadows, stood by him, looking exactly as he had appeared among Atemu's court. It was then that he spied the magician's staff leaning against the wall of the tent and reality washed back in. The older man was still a creature of the shadows. Seth lay back down, propped up on the pillows Mahado had piled behind him. "-I saw Atemu in my camp. With the rumors I've been hearing, I couldn't let him escape me.-"

"-I hate to be the one to tell you this, Seth, but it was not Atemu you followed here,-" Mahado said, drifting over to what was recognizable as a curtained sleeping area. "-It was our young prince who you saw. See him again now.-"

He pulled aside the curtain and Seth drew a sharp breath. Sleeping there on another cot was a ghostly twin of his dear cousin. The child was pale and his features softer than that of Atemu. Innocent.

"-How is a child like that possible?-" Seth whispered, shaken.

"-Upon death, ka and ba were fully separated, each becoming a separate person but still sharing a soul,-" a new voice said, accompanied by the sound of heavy canvas being pushed aside. Seth turned his head to see the blond man from his vision approaching his bedside. And, true to the vision, he had Shada's old scales tucked into his belt. "-The ka, which held the memories, slept within the millennium puzzle until reunited with the reborn ba, who you see here. His name is Yugi.-" (1)

When the boy, Yugi, began to stir, Mahado drew the curtain closed. "-Seth, do you think that you have strength to get up? Our prince needs his sleep after leading you across the desert, and there are still people that you should see and see again.-"

"-I think so,-" Seth said. He let the violet-eyed man, who's name he'd yet to hear, help him up and took his offer to lean of him. "-Who are you?-"

"-Marik Ishtar, head of the Ishtar clan of tomb keepers,-" the man said. "-Sworn to serve Pharaoh Atemu as long as he has need of us.-"

"An oath you conveniently forget whenever you and the thief are in a pranking mood."

If Marik hadn't been supporting him, Seth was sure that he would have fainted there and then. Dressed in the robes of a high priest, his reflection, pale, stood in a pool of moonlight, arms crossed over his chest and the fingers of one hand wrapped firmly around the handle of the bladed millennium rod. Another pale boy, this one with black hair and a face that was thankfully only similar, not identical, stood next to his twin, staring at him with wide eyes.

"-Seth, meet Seto, your reincarnation,-" Mahado said, smiling. "-The child is Mokuba, his younger brother.- Mokuba, this is Seth, once high priest, but now pharaoh after Atemu's death."

The pre-teen's eyes skipped back and forth between the two blue-eyed men. "Wow. Bakura was right about the two of you looking alike, Seto. It's kinda creepy."

Jumping as the thief's name passed through the boy's lips, Seth blinked as Seto laughed, ruffling the boy's hair. "What he looks like, Mokuba, is me after a day at the beach. Probably talks like Atemu. They're cousins after all."

"Does that mean that Yugi is our cousin?" Mokuba asked, tilting his head to the side.

"No."

"-What language is that you speak?-" Seth asked, confused. "-I've never heard it before.-"

Seto snorted. "-Japanese. Mokuba's and my native tongue. You're fortunate that I speak both. A good portion of Atemu's 'court' only speak it and English, if that.-"

"-They're at it again! Move out of the way!-"

Seth found himself pulled abruptly from the 'road' as a pair of horses charged into the space rearing to a stop. He spun around only to freeze in renewed shock. Bakura stood there, startled, Seth's cloak still clutched in his fist, yet, it wasn't him, not quite. This boy was younger, and as pale as the moonlight that showed his brown eyes, different from demonic amber.

"-Oi, your royal pain-in-the-ass-ness. Step away from my hikari,-" said a voice that still sometimes haunted the new pharaoh's nightmares. Turning, he stared up to see Bakura, this time exactly as he remembered him, sitting tall on the nearest of the two horses, face slightly flushed from exertion. At seeing Mahado's ring still hanging from around his neck, a brief flash of rage flew through his heart. It was only brief because in the next moment, he went absolutely numb.

There, on the other horse, dressed in the full regatta of the station he'd had claim to upon his death with the puzzle hanging proudly from around his throat, was Atemu.

The son of Ra smiled, sliding to the ground between the two horses before walking around to stand in front of his cousin, who had not yet recovered his ability to move.

Bakura dismounted, handing both sets of reins to a young boy who'd appeared from somewhere and nudging him toward the tying posts. As he looked the blue-eyed pharaoh up and down, his smirk changed into a grin. "Well, Kaiba's here and he's still conscious. Pay up."

Both Marik and Atemu sighed in exasperation at the thief, who stood with a hand extended impatiently toward them.

"Ra and Hathor, Bakura, can't this wait?" Atemu groaned, running a hand through tri-colored spikes.

"Nope. You too, tomb keeper."

Seth stepped forward as Marik released him and fell to his knees, wrapping his arms around Atemu's stomach, forehead pressed against his chest. "-Where have you been all this time?-"

Soothing fingers combed through brown hair. "-I have missed you, Seth. Mahado, where is Yugi?-"

"-Well, he was sleeping…-"

The former high priest stiffened as there was the unmistakable sound of a yawn behind him. "-Atemu, why is Seth out of bed? He should be resting.-" Pale hands rested on one of Seth's arms and he turned his head slightly to look into the purest pair of violet eyes that he'd ever thought imaginable. Except for the colors, it was like seeing Atemu as a child again, back as a prince who hid in large jars. "-I'm sorry.-"

He jerked back in surprise. "-No, you mustn't apologize! You haven't done anything wrong!-"

Yugi blinked, glancing up at Seto. "Are you sure he's your incarnation?" When the reincarnation didn't answer, he turned back to the original. "-I tricked you into following me, and it's my fault that you collapsed.-"

"-I doubt that he's used to Japanese politeness yet, aibou,-" Atemu said, laying a hand on his other half's shoulder. "-Seth, you were never one to kneel before me unless ceremony demanded it. Why start now?-"

"Do the phrases 'living god' or 'son of Ra' ring any bells?" Marik asked. "As far as he knows, you have just returned from the underworld where you feasted with Osiris day and night."

Understanding entered red eyes and he slowly removed Seth's arms from around him, holding onto both hands as he knelt down to be at least somewhat eye level with his cousin. Blue eyes were wide on the tanned face. "-Seth, none who were touched by the shadow realm were taken into the underworld upon our deaths. Bakura and I were both split in two, ka sealed into the millennium objects we bore while ba was reborn. The others were reborn as well, but as complete souls with only vague memories of the way things were.-"

"-The mutt's coming,-" Seto broke in, facing the sky.

Confused, Seth followed his twin's gaze and wonder flooded over his face. The black dragon flying overhead was nowhere near as magnificent as his own white one, but it was still a site to behold. Captivated by it as he was, it took Seth a minute to notice the rider. This man was pale as well, but bore hair the color of Ra himself. (2)

The dragon circled lower until it landed softly on the ground by them, rider sliding down and patting its side fondly before he turned to Atemu, apparently not noticing Seth. "There's an army about two miles from here on horseback, heading this way. Didn't look too friendly. Saw one of the blue-eyes flying around the north hills, couldn't tell which one, but I figured that it wouldn't be just drifting if trouble was coming from that way."

"Midori was patrolling the north front," Seto said. "She'll call for me if she sees anything. You stayed out of sight?"

"As well as I could, moneybags," the blond said, turning to look at the priest. Upon realizing that two Kaiba's stood there, he blinked. "Okay, I think I've spent too much time in the sun, cause I'm seeing double. Which of you is the real Kaiba?"

"That's right you were on patrol when Yugi brought him in," Atemu said, suppressing a laugh for his friend's sake. "This is high- well, I suppose it would be pharaoh now, so this is Pharaoh Seth."

Said royal was slowly making his way over to the black dragon, which eyed him suspiciously. "-Calm, great creature. I mean no harm to you.-"

"His name's Kage," Jou said, also going back to his dragon's side. "My name's Jounouchi Katsuya, call me Jou." When confusion overcame Seth's face, he sighed and began the simple act of pointing to the dragon and then to himself. "Kage, Jou." (3)

Seth smiled and joined the game, amused. "-Seth.-"

Jou grinned. "I think I like this version of you better, Kaiba. Yugi, think his people would notice if we swapped them?"

"I'm afraid the skin color would tip them off if nothing else, Jou," Yugi said with a laugh. "-So, pack up the camp?-"

Atemu nodded. "-Sound the horns. Yugi, fly with me. Bakura, Mahado, Marik, you're on the ground. Seto, Jou, left and right flank. Mokuba, take up the rear and keep watch for sneak attacks but do try to avoid fighting when you're able to. Ryou, ride with Seto.-"

"-Send Seth and Yugi with Mizuto,-" Seto put in.

The priest met red eyes and the two held their gazes steady until Atemu nodded, turning to his hikari. "-Stay above me when you can.-"

"-Hey Pharaoh, no hogging all the fun this time!-" Bakura yelled as he ran off to organize his men. "-And that doesn't mean having your stupid dragon blast only the enemy around me!-"

Yugi grabbed hold of Seth's arm. "-Come on, we need to go grab some bows before meeting with Mizuto. How's your aim?-"

"-Fine,-" he said, startled. "-But who, or what, is Mizuto?-"

"-He's one of Seto's dragons.-"

"-One of?-"

"-He has three,-" the reluctant prince said, stopping a young mejia who was running past. " I need my bow as well as one of the high priest's spares. Two bundles of arrows. Mai! Try to catch up with Atemu before he and Hikami take flight. I won't be flying with him today."

"Yugi, where's Mokuba? Kaiba wanted me to keep an eye on him," a black-haired man called out. Seth could only catch sight of a tattoo under one eye before he ran off, apparently catching sight of his currently appointed ward.

"-This is all madness,-" Seth said, watching the chaos that was their armies gathering.

Yugi laughed, shading his eyes against the sun as he watched the skies for something. "-This is normal. You should have seen battle kingdom. That was madness and I suppose we have the items to thank and blame both for it.-" Amethyst eyes darkened a shade. "-It would seem that the eye has a penchant for corrupting otherwise great men. Bakura watches it now. He appears to be immune to its effects.-" The young face brightened. "-There he is!-"

As Seth followed Yugi's gaze, 'he' resolved itself into a sight that the man hadn't seen since Atemu's departure. Blue-eyed, the white dragon flew directly for them, nearly knocking them off of their feet with the wind from its wings as it landed beside the pair, lowering itself close to the ground.

"-_This _is Mizuto?-" Seth asked in disbelief as the youth fearlessly ran up to hug the dragon around its neck. "-And Seto has three of them?-"

"-Correct on both counts,-" Yugi said, grinning at the pharaoh's awed expression. "-Kisara is the one you'd be familiar with. Seto always flies on her, especially since she's the oldest and strongest. We don't actually have any idea where the others came from, though Jii-san has a couple of ideas. Here, help me up and then get on behind me.-"

The mejia boy arrived with their weapons just as Seth was mounting and quickly ran to give the dragon all of the space it would need to take off. Rising into the air, the man got his first good look at exactly what forces his cousin had gathered. From the flags raised, he counted eleven clans of mejia, perhaps a hundred men each. A twelfth banner, similar to the mejia's but not quite the same, flew over a group of two hundred, led by the blond man, Marik. A woman sprinted between the twelve clans and the much smaller group of people surrounding the royal tent. There was something familiar about her, but by then they'd risen too high for Seth to make out any features.

"-Here,-" Yugi said, thrusting, a pair of binoculars at him. The Egyptian blinked in confusion, so Yugi explained. "-Slip the strap around your neck and look through the smaller end. Turn the knobs to focus. It makes things appear closer.-"

Understanding, Seth did as told, scanning the ground. "-We have something similar, I believe.-" Ah, there. The woman was speaking to Marik, who pointed up at them. She looked up and Seth gasped, the binoculars slipping from his fingers. The reason for the strap became suddenly clear. "-Isis? What is she doing here?-"

The prince laughed softly, turning his ear to the winds as though to hear some hidden sound. "-That's not Isis. She's called Ishizu, Marik's older sister and the older of the necklace.-"

/Aibou, we're about to call the others/ Atemu sent. A chuckle reverberated through their link. /Make sure Seth doesn't fall off or die from shock./

"-Seth, hold onto me,-" Yugi instructed, letting go of the dragon beneath them only once a pair of arms was wrapped around his waist. The hikari lifted his arms high above his head as through to embrace Ra.

Fear began to gather in Seth's heart as the sky gathered around the masses which had shaped into armies. Through them, Seth could make out shadow creatures appearing around them in the air and below them on the ground, at least one to each third man.

A shining dragon rose out of the darkness to fly parallel to them and Seth recognized Atemu's own dragon of Ra. Said pharaoh rode upon it's back along with the woman Yugi had shouted to as they'd readied. It was only as he noticed the shadows especially think around his cousin that Seth realized that none touched the prince at all. In fact, they seemed to hover a careful inch away from him, like a shield.

/Do not be afraid Seth/ Atemu's voice resonated through the air. Seth started, eyes growing wide. /The shadows know who is friend and foe. From here on, tell my hikari whatever needs to be heard by Bakura, Seto, or myself. I'll explain later. Ra and shadows protect you./ waving to the prince, Atemu abruptly sent his dragon to fly beneath them, only twenty or so feet above the ground.

_Hikari_? Seth mouthed, wondering at the foreign word. For some reason, it brought to mind the blinding lights he'd seen in the last of his dreams.

Despite his disassociation with them, Seth clearly felt the shadows twist as they completely shrouded Atemu beneath them as well as the thief on the ground. At the same time, a though by silent cue, Yugi and the boy Bakura had titled _his _hikari were encased in a blinding light, bringing the same sense of purity and holiness as it had in the dream. The realization left Seth breathless. Just what was it that he held? (4)

"-Here, this will help you to see,-" Yugi's voice drifted from the blaze and the Egyptian could feel a small hand touch his closed eyes, clenched shut against the light. Warmth flooded through him and he cautiously opened his eyes, blinking away the sun spots. The boy with him was still shining the same, but it didn't seem to effect his eyes anymore. "-I forgot that you aren't Seto for a second. He had no darkness, so has never had a problem seeing through the light.-"

As they passed over a set of hills, a deafening roar arose from men and beast alike, easily covering the fearful cries of their enemy as they descended on them. Knocking an arrow, Seth recalled his general's earlier words. _They came wrapped in the shadows from everywhere, even the sky, like a horde of demons. _As his first arrow was released, he laughed. "-You were wrong, Shada! The dead _have _returned to us!-"

--

1. Completely made this explanation up.

2. No, this is not a hint for upcoming romance. Remember, no blonds in ancient Egypt.

3. Okay, the reason that the red-eyes black dragon has a Japanese name is because Jou named him. Same with any other monster having a Japanese name. Those who were named characters back in Egypt will have Egyptian names (ex. Mahado, Kisara) but otherwise will have Japanese names, even some of Atemu and Bakura's, mainly because I think they'd let their hikari bother naming them rather than taking the task themselves.

4. Bunch of stuff that will be explained later.


	6. Hikari

A/N: Yatta! Two fics updated in one day! And chapters for this fic take _forever _to write. By the way, I love summer sleep schedules, but I hate the amount of people who crowd into Starbucks during the summer. Tourists! Everywhere! I live in a port town, and it just happens to be the one place that _everybody _stops before taking the ferry out to the islands, especially in my coffee shop! Meh! I've even had to share my table because it's one of the only ones that has a plug in and I think there are at least five laptops in here, mine not included. Okay, enough ranting. Insert the standard disclaimer here and enjoy the chapter. And please, please leave a review. I need them to cheer me up after being squished to half a table.

"Return of the King"

Chapter Six 

Hikari 

In Seth's absence, Shada was chosen as acting pharaoh as being the eldest of the priests, closely advised by Isis. The four priests were death silent as their trackers gave report.

"-My lords, we followed Pharaoh's footprints for several days' worth of traveling on foot,-" the man said, head bowed low. "-He follows the horse's prints the entire way, resting among the rocks on occasion. Only twice did another set of footprints approach him, the first at his first resting place and the other at the very end of the trail, where there were three sets, and none others to hint at where the third man came from or where any of them went to from there. We beg forgiveness for our failure.-"

"Did you find anything besides the tracks?-" Shada asked, dearly wishing to pound his head into the desk.

"-This was left in the sands, my lord,-" the tracker said. From a bag, he pulled out a rolled piece of papyrus. Tied to the string holding it was a small golden disk recognizable as a protection amulet. It bore the all too familiar millennium eye of the shadows.

Hands trembling, Shada took the scroll and unrolled it. The majority of the space was taken over by an ink painting of a giant clay pot with small footprints in the sand leading to it. A child's hand was caught in the act of pulling the lid shut.

Blinking, Shada and Isis exchanged a glance. A smile threatened to escape onto their faces despite the gravity of the situation.

"-Do not fear the shadows, for from them emerges the sun?-" Geb read out, confused. "-What riddle is this? Who is the 'Dark Magician?'-"

Isis waved her dismissal to the tracker before she answered. "-He once went by the name of Mahado.-"

The two new priests jumped back from the paint as if it was going to burst into flame. "-This is from the shadows? This painting, is it of a shadow creature?-"

"-Not in the slightest,-" Shada said. "-It is a painting of Atemu. As a child.-"

"-He used to hide from Mahado in those pots,-" Isis said, covering a smile. "-And it would seem that becoming a shadow creature had not stolen Mahado's sense of humor in the slightest.-"

"-The sun could refer to the pharaoh, though the painting suggests Atemu rather than Seth,-" Shada said, frowning. "-The shadows are clearly literal and probably meant to both warn and reassure us.-"

"-The child's hand is oddly pale,-" Shu pointed out. "-And the fingers are narrow.-"

"-Perhaps it's not him as a child, but rather returning to childhood, and pale from death?-" Shada suggested.

"-No, not returning to childhood, returning to games,-" Isis whispered, touching the chariots and horses painted on the pot. "-And who was his favorite opponent?-"

"-Seth.-"

-

The moment the last wounded was taken care of and the last dead buried, a huge bonfire was built and Seth recognized the beginning of a celebration rivaling many of the festivals he'd seen. He blinked as several children ran past with sticks that sent sparks into the night air and would have continued staring after them had Yugi not begun tugging him towards the court tents and into the largest.

"-We always get cleaned up before joining the celebrations,-" Yugi said, pulling the new pharaoh in through the door. "-Kaiba, I'm borrowing some of your clothes for Seth.-"

The high priest glanced up from where he was helping Mokuba to comb out his hair. "You'll have to help him dress. This was my last clean robe."

"And besides, a pharaoh can hardly be seen wearing the clothes of a high priest," Bakura said, lounging on a pile of pillows, his face and hair suspiciously clean and his clothe, while extremely strange to Seth, fresh. The thief noticed his suspicion and smirked. "-Ground fighters always get to the bathes first, after Atemu.-"

"-And that's only because my dragon is faster,-" Atemu said as he stepped out from a curtained area, dressed in clothes nearly as odd as Bakura's. "-You'd better claim a time slot before Marik and Ryuji get in and take an hour each.-"

-

Seth pulled awkwardly at the clothes he'd been given to wear, only the fact that most of the rest of his cousin's court seemed to be wearing similar things to convince him that he wasn't being tricked into mocking himself.

"-They belong to Seto,-" Yugi had said cheerfully when he'd handed the bundle to him and shown him how each piece was worn. "-We wear this type of stuff back home all the time.-"

He was fortunate that his didn't fit as tightly as the prince's appeared to, especially the leggings, which clung to the pale teenager like a second skin. To add to the oddities, Atemu wore much the same, with none of the ornaments due to him at Pharaoh, and none of the court gave it a second's notice. Even Seth changed into a white outfit that covered almost all of his pale skin below the neck, leaving only his arms bare to the sun.

"-How do you stand such clothes on a hot day?-" he asked, motioning to Yugi's black clothing. "-The color alone would seem to draw in heat.-"

"-It's not this hot in Japan,-" the teenager said with a grin. "-And even when the temperatures go up, it's really humid. Besides, sunscreen can only do so much. We'd burn if he didn't stay at least somewhat covered up. It's the pale skin.-"

Seth merely shook his head. It was clear that he'd never quite figure out their idea of logic, no matter how long he stayed among them. Despite the fact that they were in a war and had just left a bloody battle, they were relaxed and carefree, more so than he'd remembered acting even during times of peace. It was in his musings that he heard Bakura's hikari, Ryou, call out.

"-Yugi, they're at it _again_!-"

-

"-Ten regiments,-" Shada said in disbelief, staring down at the reports he'd just received from three different fronts. "-Ten enemy regiments, just destroyed like that within a month's time. How can this be possible?-"

"-Their reports are practically identical once the shadows appear,-" Isis said, shuffling through the many various pieces of papyrus, stopping at one in particular. "-Except for this one.-"

"-The white dragon,-" Shada sighed, nodding as he accepted the report from her. "-And Seth riding upon it, pale as death, flying opposite a black beast bearing a golden rider.-"

"-Has our pharaoh left us?-" Geb asked, wringing his hands. "-Has he joined Pharaoh Atemu in fighting on after his death?-"

Forgetting protocol, Shada buried his head in his hands, fingers gripping black strands. _Akunumkanon, what would you do if you were here? I'm not even sure if Atemu would know what to do._ Drawing a deep breath to calm himself, the acting pharaoh straightened up. "-Make no announcements yet, not until we're absolutely sure. Even if the unthinkable happens and Seth is dead, it must be kept from the people until this war is over. We cannot afford to lose hope at this time. Until the pharaoh says otherwise, this is my word.-"

Exchanging an uneasy glance, Geb and Shu bowed before leaving the tent. Isis waited for the door flap to fall back into place before collapsing against the side of Seth's- Shada's chair, shoulders shaking. "-We're all being taken away, one by one, the strongest first. What are we going to do? What will happen to Egypt if we all have to leave before she's safe, taken by the very shadows that we used to protect her?-"

Shada wrapped an arm around his old friend. "-Then we'll fight as shadows and pray to your namesake that it's enough.-"

-

The sheer number of familiar faces Seth saw on strangers that night was nearly unbelievable, but not so much as the sight of Ryou joking around with Yugi, the pair talking and laughing in their own language. He had to keep reminding himself that they were not Bakura and Atemu, even if _they _acted on fair terms when they encountered each other as well.

"-Hikari are naturally drawn to each other,-" Mahado explained when he'd caught Seth staring at the two Japanese teenagers for the nth time that night. "-It's only natural that they should be friends.-"

Seth frowned. "-Hikari. What does that word mean? I've heard it used to describe them over and over since being brought here. Could you explain it to me?-"

"-Literally translated, it merely means light,-" the magician said. "-Yami, the word they use for the other halves, means dark. That part is fairly simple at least.-"

"-Meaning that there's more to it that isn't nearly as simple,-" Seth concluded correctly.

Mahado nodded. "-To my best ability to describe it, the hikari is the pure half of the soul, untouched by the darkness of the shadows, but as such, able to control them. They are the half Ra himself would have created if they hadn't been born otherwise. They are the light to cast the shadows that we call Atemu and Bakura. We have yet to learn the full depth of their magic.-"

"-They're that powerful?-" Seth asked, surprised.

"-They're hikari.-" And that was the end of it.

-

Despite Isis' fears, no more of the former item holders vanished in the next couple of days, though they did receive an increasing number of reports involving shadows defeating groups of their enemies, some even rescuing villages before vanishing back into the desert.

"-Shada, I think I may know where the shadows are coming from,-" Isis said, bursting into the royal tent with a chart. Clearing the desk with a wide sweep of her arm, she laid it out for her fellow priest to see. "-I've been looking over the reports, particularly at the directions they say that the shadows appeared from and left in.-" She bent down to grab some of the scattered army markings from the ground, placing them at various points on the chart. "-There have been shadows reported fighting at these points. In the first incident, the general said that they came from and returned to the southeast, and had some men on foot. The soldiers reported their armies appearing fresh, which means that they weren't marching for more than a few hours. That puts their camp about here.-" She stuck the chart with a pin. "-The second occurred here, just as the enemy army reached our own, and we found their base only a hour's march away. The shadows came from the north this time, the battle lasted only three hours, and they left in this direction…-" She thought for a moment. "-That suggests that they moved their camp during the battle, meaning they have more than just those seen in the battles, probably of foot. Three hours time walking with supplies… this is the furthest they could get to all likelihood.-" She stuck another pin on the line she'd drawn from the fight's location in the direction that the shadow army had left in. "-When Seth left us, the horse tracks coming toward our camp came from the northeast, and were followed from this location here, where the trackers found enough tracks for several armies to have camped for a few nights, but he left to the northwest, almost exactly due west from the camp.-" She looked up at Shada. "-It's as though they've been dancing around us, staying far away enough not to be seen, but close enough to protect us.-"

"-Or to catch the majority of the attacks, since our army has been the main focus of many of the battles,-" Shada suggested, placing marks where the rescued villages were. The marks made a spiral around their camp, growing smaller. "-I think we'll be seeing them soon.-"

"-The question is, who will we be seeing?-"

-

Seth had to adapt quickly to the camp's odd way of doing things, especially in the down time between battles. Seto and Jou spent most of their time when no patrolling practicing with the sword and throwing what sounded like insults between themselves in the blonde's language. He found himself avoid Ishizu and Shadi for their resemblance to Isis and Shada, as well as an old man who'd been introduced to him as Sugoroku, Yugi's grandfather, for much of the same reason. Fortunately, the violet-eyed man seemed to speak only a few words in Egyptian.

Much to his irritation, he also received precious little time with his much-missed cousin, the revived pharaoh busy most of the time peering over maps and diagrams or else consulting with Ishizu over any visions she may have had. Instead, it was Yugi and Ryou who stuck to his side, the pair showing him around the camp and trying to teach him a game using sheets of dyed papyrus that resembled the shadow games much more than he would have liked, especially when the two played against each other, using strategies that called up memories that didn't end in a friendly handshake when one defeated the other.

It was almost against his will that he found himself growing attached to the pale twin of the hated Bakura, even knowing that the boy possessed half of the tomb robber's own soul.

"-I should hate the very sight of him, Atemu, so why am I starting to look forward to seeing both he and Yugi?-" he asked when he did get to talk with his cousin. His pacing had left deep tracks in the sand.

"-Ryou is a hikari,-" Atemu said, amused. "-People can't help but to be drawn to them. I'm sure that, even in the midst of battle, you've noticed that they emit… purity. They're sacred.-" The red-eyed pharaoh laughed. "-If you think it's bad for you, try to imagine sharing the body of such a person, sharing a soul. It feels as though Ra himself is embracing you.-"

"-Mahado said that they were 'the half Ra himself would have created if they hadn't been born otherwise,'-" Seth said, frowning, and he stopped pacing to face Atemu. "-Are they even mortal?-"

Atemu smiled, tilting his head to the side. "-We'll just have to wait and see, won't we? Hikari might turn out like yami, and as far as we've seen so far, yami appear to be immortal.-"

"-You were supposedly immortal before your death, oh son of Ra,-" Seth said with a roll of his eyes. "-I've heard several references to 'home' since my arrival here. This Japan, what is it like?-"

"-Cold,-" was the pharaoh's one-word answer. "-Especially during the winter. It gets so cold that the water becomes solid enough to walk on and the rain falls like bits of cotton. It's also very green, like it is immediately after the floods recede, because it rains many times every year or short periods of time. The entire country is made up of islands, most of them quite large. Japan is a wealthy country, as you can probably suppose from the clothing my court wears. Most of them are from Japan. It is where Yugi was born.-"

"-Is it in this world?-" Seth asked, confused.

"-Yes, and then again, no,-" Atemu said. One of the mejia clan heads entered his tent, officially destroying any chance Seth had to demand explanation. Nodding to the old man, the former high priest exited just in time to be nearly run over by Yugi as he ran after Ryou.

"-There you are!-" the youth exclaimed, grabbing hold of the Egyptian and dragging him along. "-We've been looking for you. Ryou, wait up!-"

"-You found him?-" the albino asked, glancing back over his shoulder at them. He slowed down enough for the pair to catch up. "-Wonderful. Bakura's got an idea that he wants to bounce off of you.-"

Surprisingly, the tomb robber didn't attack him the moment Seth entered his tent. In fact, he barely looked up before Ryou had taken a seat down next to him on his pile of pillows.

"-I've been talking to Atemu,-" Bakura said abruptly, waving an arm toward a second pile of pillows. Between them all, they made most of a circle. Keeping a suspicious eye on the thief, Seth took a seat once Yugi had. "-Our forces are more than enough to destroy any enemy armies left that we might find, but while we're in one place, they're still moving, and our numbers slow us down.-"

"-You want to split the army,-" Seth said, making the connection.

Amber eyes lifted to meet blue. "-That's exactly what I'm saying. We split our forces, leaving one to seek out what's left of the enemy while the other continues our spiral path to the royal camp. After all, one army hardly needs two pharaohs, and I'm sure your priests are worried about you.-"

"-Who would I be taking?-" Seth asked, leaning back.

"-Seven of the mejia clans, one of Seto's dragons, a handful of shadow creatures, and Mahado,-" Bakura listed off. "-Oh, and the hikari, so we'll be able to communicate. Personally, I wish I could see the priests' faces when they see Ryou and Yugi. Just do me a favor and make sure no one's near their bows the first time anyone sees Ryou. Knowing the intelligence of armies, they'll see white hair and shoot first.-"

Nodding, Seth stood and turned to leave, the hikari leading the way. He was just about to leave the tent after then when he paused, glancing back at Bakura. "-When did you change?-"

The thief's expression was softer than he'd ever seen, with more than a touch of regret. "-When I almost got Ryou killed.-"


	7. Water Droplet

A/N: Woot! New chapter! Things are finally coming together and there's a little more room to play with people's heads now. Alright, I'm sorry to say this, but I'm afraid that I won't be able to do any more updates for this fic until mid-August at the earliest, since I'll be busy with rehearsals for the rest of this month and then we're taking our play to Scotland for the Edinburgh Theatre Festival. may or may not be able to find time to write over there, but I do know that I won't be able to update until I get back. I'm trying to post one last chapter for most of my fics before I go, but I'm not sure how well I'll be able to do that. But for now, enjoy this latest chapter and be sure to send me lots of yummy reviews to cheer me on. (And if you're going to be in Edinburgh, come and see us! We're the high school group from Washington!) Love you lots!

ATTENTION! I'm not sure what happened, but when I origonally posted this chapter, it was somehow chopped in half. Unfortunately for all you lovely people, I didn't notice until now. But at long last, the full chapter is here for your reading pleasure. By the way, my drama club had our opening night last night, the one performance in our hometown, and good gods it was terrifying. The chocolate fountain at the gala, however, was nice. Thanks for all the support.

"Return of the King"

Chapter Seven

Water Droplet

The splitting of the forces went smoother than Seth could have imagined, his seven clans easily splitting from the others. Yugi and Ryou promised to summon the shadow creatures when they were needed before the pair was whisked away for some last minute mischief. He didn't see much of them until the day of their departure.

"-Ra must hate me,-" he muttered upon seeing the two hikari. As if he didn't have enough problems remembering that they weren't their counterparts normally!

"-At least Bakura didn't paint his scar onto my face,-" Ryou said cheerfully as he correctly read Seth's groan. Grinning, he readjusted how the red cloak sat on his shoulders.

"-And we haven't used what Marik gave us,-" Yugi piped up once he'd settled onto his horse. "-Oh, hello Atemu.-"

The pharaoh raised an eyebrow, taking in Yugi and Ryou's suspiciously innocent faces. "-What did Marik give you, aibou?-"

With a positively evil grin, especially on a hikari's face, Yugi motioned for Atemu to come into range so that he could whisper into his ear, the act more symbolic than necessary considering their mental link. Crimson eyes widened before narrowing in laughter. Now Seth _knew _he had a reason to be worried.

"-Try not to kill them,-" Atemu said, reaching up to touch his hikari's cheek. "-And come back to me safely.-"

"-You worry too much,-" Yugi said, smiling. "-I was fine the last time I went out, wasn't I? And that was without any backup.-"

"-But it wasn't into battle,-" the yami reminded him. He looked up to Seth. "-Cousin, keep him safe.-"

They were just starting to move when a yell reached them. "-If I find out that one hair on Ryou's head is damaged, Seth, I'll hunt you down and feed you to Diabound!-"

Shaking his head, Ryou sighed. "-At least I know he cares.-"

-

Seth waited impatiently for his scout to return from her flight over the ridge. Or, rather, Ryou's scout, seeing as the shadow creature, known as the Change of Heart, belonged to the thief's hikari. Shading his eyes against the sun, he watched the sky where she'd vanished.

"-Here she comes,-" Ryou said. He pointed to a speck on the horizon that Seth had to squint to see at first, but quickly resolved itself into the now familiar flying monster. "-What's the report?-"

"-Two regiments at camp,-" she said, bowing to each of the three in turn, starting with her master. "-Their cooking fires have already been doused, so I don't think they'll be staying put for much longer.-"

"-Rouse the others,-" the hikari said with a nod of acknowledgment, meaning the other shadow creatures. The flying girl bowed again before vanishing in a swirl of shadows. Ryou glanced at Yugi, noticing his friend's distraction. "Yugi?"

"-Atemu's army has found their own opponent,-" the purple-eyed teenager said, eyes refocusing on the area around him and on them.

"-How far apart are they?-" Seth asked, eyes flickering in hidden awe at the boy's magic.

Yugi shrugged. "-He didn't say.-"

The pharaoh sighed. "-Gather the men. We'll ride out as soon as we can.-"

The two hikari nodded, turning away from him to get ready.

"-First battle away from them,-" Ryou murmured as the pair walked.

"-We'll be all right,-" Yugi said. "-We're still connected.-"

Preparations were swift and efficient enough to show Seth that he'd received a fair portion of Atemu's more skilled men. Once again, Yugi flew with him on the dragon while Ryou led the forces on the ground.

They were in mid-battle when Yugi stiffened in front of him, nearly causing the pharaoh to release his arrow early and miss his target.

"-Yugi?-" he questioned, concerned for the prince.

Yugi glanced briefly back at him, letting go of his grip on the dragon. Quickly, Seth hooked his bow over an arm to grab hold of the teen. He recognized what would happen next. "-They're calling the shadows.-"

_And they need your light to do that_, Seth thought, closing his eyes. He could feel Yugi raise his arms, growing warmer. From the yells of shock he heard from down below, he knew that Ryou was doing the same. When he opened his eyes, no shadows had appeared near the hikari on or above the battlefield. Rather, the area was filled with light. It blinded their enemy, making them claw at their eyes, screaming.

Seth almost felt like screaming himself from the purity emitting from the boy he held in his arms. The light served to illuminate his every flaw, and it was painful next to Yugi's innocence. _Isis and Hathor, Atemu was wrong. Ra's embrace would be nothing compared to this._

The hikari, as though sensing the former priest's distress, turned around into the embrace, cupping his hands over dark cheeks. "-It's alright, cousin.-"

Blue eyes widened. "-Cousin?-"

Yugi continued, ignoring the gasped question. "-You're only human, and have never been split into yami and hikari, nor will you ever. Seth, you're fortunate to not have the burden of being only half a soul. Remember that you are capable of seeing past the light. It means that you are good. You may still possess your darkness, but you are good.-" He grinned then, taking down his hands to take Seth's bow and an arrow, swiftly downing a man on his horse below as Mizuto swept low momentarily, destructive energy flying from the dragon's open mouth to wipe out a group of soldiers about to attack Ryou while he was distracted. The ring hung between his hands as he concentrated on the trembling points. /Ryou, what have you found/

The white haired one looked up at them, pointing his entire arm southeast. /We're less than a day's ride from the royal camp./

/Tomorrow/ Yugi said, nodded. He waved as they ascended back into the sky. /We can start the betting pool after cleanup./

-

With how the shadows were stirring the night air, it was with no surprise that Isis found Shada still awake as well, sitting by the cooking fire even after all but the night watch had gone to sleep. "-Shada.-"

"-Isis,-" he said, nodding in return to her greeting. "-Why aren't you asleep?-"

"-The same reason that you're still up, I would think,-" the priestess said, taking a seat on the sand next to him. "-They're getting extremely close.-"

"-I know,-" Shada sighed, glancing toward the nearly invisible horizon to the northwest. "-I keep expecting to see the shadow army bursting over the dunes toward us, but my subconscious hasn't decided whether they're on our side or coming to attack us.-"

Isis frowned. "-Seth was certain that Atemu sent them, my friend. Certainly he would never send the shadows against his own people.-"

"-My mind remembers that, but my heart remembers the hunger of the shadows and their ability to corrupt,-" the priest said, staring into the flames for a moment before he stood, brushing sand from his robes. "-I do believe that we will need our energy in the morning, so I will bid you goodnight.-"

Nodding, Isis remained by the fireside only a few moments longer before she herself stood to retire for the night, casting one last glance toward the dark meeting of sand and sky. She didn't need her necklace to know that Shada had been right. Something was going to happen tomorrow.

-

Something _did_ happen that morning, and early. Their camp was attacked by the largest enemy army they'd seen yet.

"-Lords, stay in your tent, we beg of you!-"

Fearful for the lives of their remaining leaders in the absence of their pharaoh, the royal guards tried desperately to keep Shada and the other priests away from danger, to little success.

"-It's our duty to fight as much as it is our soldiers'!-" Shada insisted, pushing past the men with a sword in hand. Isis followed at his side. After realizing how it'd look if they stayed behind, even Shu and Geb fought their way out of the protected tent, yelling loudly as they charged into the masses.

The fighting grew worse for Egypt's armies as their numbers were cut down by foreign swords and arrows. The other army was already beginning to cry out its victory when their yells abruptly changed tone.

"-They're afraid,-" Isis gasped, nearly getting stabbed for her distraction.

Shada, at her back, nodded. "-But what of?-"

'What of' became quite clear as shadows began to creep up upon their battlefield from the northwest, flowing along each flank before wrapping around and over. Soldiers on both sides stopped fighting to stare in shock and fear at the living darkness. Then, through the shadows, an entire other army began to approach, led by four cloaked figures on horseback, seven others following closely behind them.

One of the four raised a staff that neither Isis nor Shada could ever forget, and the priestess raised a hand to her mouth to cover her grief. "-Mahado…-"

"-For Egypt!-"

The shadows surged forward, bringing the army with them, and an army of shadows creatures, the likes of which they hadn't seen since Atemu's death.

Seeing the strangers and shadow creatures destroying their enemy, Egypt's soldiers quickly pushed themselves out of their shock, only too glad for the aid in a desperate situation. It was equally terrifying and exhilarating to fight alongside the new arrivals, and both Shada and Isis found themselves trying to work their way through to the front four, which had remained grouped together when the rest of their forces had split apart to merge in with the original army.

"-Hey Shada, you have hair!-"

Eyes wide, priest and priestess spun around to stare at a familiar girl in blue armor wielding a staff. She grinned at them, casually sending a blast of dark magic at the enemy soldier coming at them from behind.

"-Mana?-" Isis choked out, not believing her eyes. Sure, she'd heard the reports, but seeing the dead before her was an entirely different story.

The girl turned shadow creature smiled brightly, nodding. "-In the flesh!-" Her expression turned impish. "-Well, sort of anyway. Long time no see. By the way, you might want to look behind you.-"

Shada turned and dodged just in time to avoid a poorly aimed spear intended for his spine. "-Mana, what are you doing here?-"

"-You didn't think that I was going to be left behind when Master Mahado came to fight, did you?-" she asked, not pausing in her fighting to talk. There was a sudden flash from the area that the two priests had been trying to reach. "-Oh, there they go!-"

Isis and Shada turned to follow her gaze, but found themselves blinded by a light worthy of Ra. Squinting, the former could just make out that it appeared to be shining from the center two of the four riders, and at about chest height, she could catch a glint of gold on both of them.

The battle was long, carrying on until dusk, at which point the four, which they'd never been able to reach, managed to circle around a particularly decorated man from the other side, pointing swords and a staff at his throat. The remaining enemy soldiers froze, all eyes on the group of five. The man, knocked from his horse, sat on the ground with a broken leg, bent over it with his eyes downward.

"-Fiend, look up and meet Our eyes,-" a voice growled out from under one of the hoods. Isis almost wept as she recognized the voice as Seth's own, but the man stubbornly did not move. "-You will die either way; this only decides _how_.-"

"-Even defeated, the king of one land should only obey the king of the victors',-" the foreign king ground out, naming himself.

The one who's staff labeled him to be Mahado laughed sharply. "-Then you shouldn't have a problem obeying him or my master.-"

The defeated king jerked his head up, startled. The first speaker tossed back his hood, and all of Egypt's armies cheered at the sight of their missing pharaoh, skin still dark with the sun and not pale with death as rumored. Beside him, Mahado also lowered his hood, creating a brief stunned silence before the cheers were taken up again, louder this time. The center two remained shrouded, whispering to each other in a language unknown to them. Whatever it was that they were saying, it amused Mahado.

Eyes narrowed, the downed king peered up into the whisperers' hoods, gasping sharply at whatever it was he saw there. "-You're--" He cut himself off when the smaller of the two raised a finger to his lips. Mouth dry, he nodded and raised his voice to be heard across the battlefield. "-Men, we surrender! There's no use fighting a people possessing leaders undefeatable even by death!-"

Trembling, his soldiers began dropping their weapons and kneeling down on the sand next to them, all facing the cloaked man that their king had just named immortal. Surely he must have been back directly by the Egyptian gods.

Turning to face his people, Seth raised his sword into the air. "-We bring you victory!-"

The shadows began to creep away as the mortal soldiers began to herd together their prisoners, most of the creatures fading away with them. Most of those who were humanoid remained behind, along with one beast type that looked like little more than a brown ball of fur with eyes, which floated around the smaller of the cloaked men, chirping. A pale hand snaked out from the cloak to scratch it under what might have been considered its chin.

Distracted, they didn't realize that Mahado and Seth had ridden up to them until the magician jumped down from his horse to tackle Shada, who accidentally grabbed Isis in his surprise, effectively dragging her down with him. "-Gotcha!-"

"-Oh gods, Mahado, we missed you,-" Isis cried, grabbing hold of the dead man, not even bothering to straighten up from their fall. Through her tears, she glared up at Seth, who remained on his horse. "-And you, don't you dare make us worry like that again! Following illusions out into the desert and then not showing up again for weeks, we thought--"

"-Wasn't an illusion,-" Seth said with a grin, dismounting. "-I found Atemu. You, Shada, were wrong.-"

The pair gaped like fish while Mahado scanned the crowds for Yugi and Ryou. He didn't see them, but their horses tethered by the royal tent made it fairly obvious where they'd vanished off to. "-Come on, let's carry on this conversation in private, shall we?-"

They helped Isis and Shada to their feet, gently guiding them toward the occupied tent. Giving Isis over to Seth to support, Mahado stepped into the tent first, eyes taking in two curled forms on the sleeping pallet, facing each other with golden pendants nearly touching between them. Shaking his head, he quietly exited.

"-I can't believe those two,-" he whispered, jerking his head toward the tent door. "-They're already asleep! Guess it tires them to be away from their yami for too long.-"

Raising an eyebrow, Seth stuck his head past the door flap before pulling away, blinking and shaking his head violently to get rid of the image that his mind had supplemented over the actual picture. And to forget the giggling he'd heard coming from the sleeping pallet. _Asleep, my ass. They're up to something._

"-Who is in there, Seth?-" Shada asked, confused. Surely it couldn't be…

Each coming to the same decision, Isis and Shada met each other's eyes before they both shoved aside the curtain and rushed in, only to be stopped dead in their tracks by the sight within. Mahado and Seth slipped in behind them, unnoticed.

Isis paled beneath dark skin. "-By the gods… Atemu?-"

"-_And_ Bakura?-" Shada gasped, finishing the priestess' verbal thought.

As one, they spun around to glare at their companions. "-What the hell is going on?-"

There was a sleepy grumble from behind them. "-Mahado, make them be quiet. We're trying to sleep.-" A pause. "-Kura, stop hogging the blanket.-"

Shocked into stiffness, they slowly turned back around just in time to see Atemu, pale and young in face, scoot _closer_ to the Thief King Bakura, who appeared to possess the same affliction.

"-Pharaoh Atemu?-" Isis whispered, eyes wide. "-Are you really here?-"

Multi-colored spikes rolled over and a pair of eyes cracked open. Even Seth started before Mahado laid a hand on his shoulder, mouthing 'watch'. Red. Yawning, the teenager sat up to stare at them briefly. He twisted around to shake the shoulder of the man next to him, waking the pale thief. Amber eyes glared at them in annoyance. Atemu smiled at them, ruffling the other's already messy hair. "-Hello, Isis, Shada. It's been a long time, hasn't it? Miss me?-"

There was a dull thumping sound and it took a moment for Isis to notice through her amazed disbelief that Shada no longer stood next to her. He'd fainted. And really, she felt like joining him.

Especially when her mind registered the sound of both Atemu and Bakura laughing. Together. And both were now clearly awake.

"-Alright, you two, how'd you do it?-" Seth asked, hands on his hips as he stared at the two in mock sternness that made them laugh even harder, using each other for support.

"-Through the miracle of contact lenses, my dear man,-" Bakura said, grinning up at them between bursts of laughter. "-Marik gave them to us.-"

"-Seth, what's going on?-" Isis squeaked, looking helplessly between the newer pharaoh and the impossible sight involving the previous one and his worst enemy, both of which were removing small discs from their eyes and putting them in little boxes that they'd pulled from under the pillow. When they looked up again, crimson and amber were gone, replaced by violet and brown. The priestess whimpered.

"-We'll wait until Shada wakes up to explain,-" 'Atemu' said, smoothing his hair. "-Thanks for not giving us away, Seth.-"

Oh yes, Isis thought. _Fainting sounds like a _very_ good option right now_, Isis thought.

And she did.


	8. Son of Ra

A/N: I'm back! Scotland was amazing, everything I imagined and more. I think I took several hundred pictures while we were there, especially in some of the cemeteries. Now I want to go back. Anywho, here's another chapter of my fic, mostly written on the plane on smuggled paper and with a smuggled pencil. My flight, ladies and gentle readers, was very shortly after the London explosive scare, which meant that flights out of the UK didn't allow you to carry on practically anything. Not even books or notebooks. I'm just glad that they didn't search my wallet, which is where I'd stashed my paper and pencil, even if we did have to go through two pat downs and take off our shoes twice, which was a bit of a bear since I'd worn these big clunky boots (part of my costume) so that they wouldn't be taking up space in my luggage. The flight was _long_. Thankfully, we were allowed a carry on once we'd gotten to New Jersey, our lay away, and were given access to our luggage so that I could get out my CD player and a proper notebook. Sigh. Well, I hope you like the chapter. By the way, make sure that you read all of the last chapter. The first time I uploaded it, not all of it showed up. I've fixed it since, so be sure to glance back and be sure that you read the repaired version. Leave me a juicy review!

"Return of the King" 

Chapter Eight

Son of Ra

The moment Isis opened her eyes, she already regretted it. A pair of amber orbs stared down at her, blinking as the owner realized that she'd awoken. The face, which she'd only seen twisted in an expression of hate before, smiled before speaking. "-She's awake. Priestess, are you alright?-" (1)

The woman scrambled back quickly, eyes searching the tent for an ally against the resurrected tomb robber. Her gaze fell upon several sleeping forms, unidentifiable under blankets, and one familiar face watching from beneath one such item. "-Atemu! Bakura- he- how can you be so calm in his presence? How can you be here? How can he? Why are you so pale? What--" Her flood of questions was halted by Bakura's hand being firmly planted over her mouth.

"-Try to keep quiet, priestess,-" he said softly. "-We don't want to alert the guards outside to our presence yet, and the others are still asleep. How much do you remember from before you fainted?-"

Still confused by the thief's softness, Isis concentrated on the day before. The battle, Mahado and Mana, Seth's return, and… and… She swallowed, looking between them. Keeping his blanket around thin shoulders with a hand, Atemu stood and moved over to them before settling back down beside Bakura. When the albino shivered in the night chill, he offered to share the blanket without pause. The other item holder accepted it in the same way. Then, Atemu laughed. "Ryou, I think we're going to give her a heart attack."

"Just wait until she sees our yami," Bakura snickered, attempting to cover the sound with a hand as he took the other from Isis' mouth. "Should we tell them at least?"

A cushion collided with the side of the white-haired boy's head. "-Make up your minds so that the rest of us can sleep.-"

"-Sorry, Mahado,-" they said in unison.

/Just get on with it/ a voice grumbled in the back of Ryou's mind.

/Bakura, you're eavesdropping again/ the boy chastened, shaking his head. There was no response. The thief had already gone back to sleep. "-Well, he says go ahead.-"

Between the hikari, there was no need to ask who 'he' was. For Isis, however…

The priestess firmed her jaw, grabbing a pale arm with each hand. "-I don't know what's going on, but we are going outside and the two of you are going to explain it, now.-"

"-Don't forget your cloaks,-" Mahado mumbled, sitting up just long enough to toss them to the pair.

"-What about Shada?-" Atemu asked, tugging at his arm. "-I'm not sure about the two of you, but I really don't want to do this more times than I have to.-"

Bakura agreed, and Isis went to wake her fellow priest while the pair fastened on their cloaks, careful to pull the hoods over their faces and hide their items beneath the thick cloth.

"-Ra, I'd hoped that it had only been a bad dream,-" Shada groaned as he rose from his blanket and caught sight of a strand of white hair protruding from Bakura's hood before the thief tucked it away. The dark man quickly turned to the other cloaked figure. "-I'm glad to see you again, Pharaoh, but did you have to bring the tomb robber back with you from the underworld too?-"

Atemu's voice was positively innocent when he replied. "-I couldn't leave behind my best friend, could I?-"

Bakura joined in, slinging an arm around the late pharaoh's shoulders. "-Course he couldn't. We're absolutely hopeless without each other.-"

They bolded from the tent, leaving Isis and Shada to stare after then for a moment and gather their wits. Exchanging a glance, the pair ran out, passing a couple of extremely started guards, and headed out into the dunes.

"-Didn't we just tell Seth off for doing exactly this?-" Shada panted, stopping on a high point of sand to search for their quarry.

"-He's never going to let us live this down,-" Isis groaned.

"-Ah, don't feel bad. You should have seen _his_ reactions to the people of our camp.-"

"-Ah!-" They both spun around, nearly falling over in the sands, to see Bakura and Atemu standing a foot away, their cloaks once again discarded.

"-Twitching, aren't they?-" Atemu commented, tilting his head to the side.

"-From what I've heard from Bakura, they can get a lot worse,-" Bakura said.

Shada was about to protest when the exact words that had been said filtered in through his brain. "-You 'heard from Bakura'?-" he echoed in disbelief. The boy nodded and Shada turned to Atemu. "-Pharaoh, what's going on?-"

The spiky-haired boy smiled. "-Actually, I believe that the title I've been given is prince. We haven't been properly introduced. I present to you Bakura Ryou, ka and hikari of the thief king Bakura.-"

Ryou took over. "-And I present Prince Mouto Yugi, ka and hikari of the ruler of shadows, Pharaoh Atemu.-"

"-But Seth said that he found Atemu,-" Isis said, eyes wide. "-Did you deceive him, or is--"

"-Bakura and Atemu are still with the main camp,-" Yugi said. The teen suddenly stiffened, eyes turning inward. "-And they don't know when to stay out of battle! Ryou!-"

The two hikari latched onto each other and began glowing. Terrified, Isis and Shada dropped to the ground to protect themselves from whatever wrath the gods had decided to visit upon the earth. Even with their eyes shut tightly, the light was still too bright.

In the distance, they could vaguely hear cries of alarm from their own camp, and cheers from the men and beasts that had come with Seth and the pair of ka.

As the minutes passed, there was the thunder of hundreds of footsteps and two shouted orders to stay back as someone ran on either side of the frightened priests. As a result, they were the only ones close enough to hear Seth's whisper. "-Fool cousin, idiot thief. Your lights need to rest.-"

"-They must have been attacked by an army who had not heard of the surrender, or wishes to get revenge by destroying them in the night,-" Mahado consoled. "-Your highness, clear the eyes of our priests so that they might see you.-" There was a pause in which Yugi said something in the language that he and Ryou had first spoken in on the battlefield. "-Shada, Isis, come toward my voice. Nothing will harm you.-"

Fighting instincts that told them to run away, the two inched forward until they each found a hand to guide them to one of the hikari. Isis found a pair of arms wrapped around her, and she returned the embrace. The shape pressed into her stomach told her that it was Yugi who she held, and that it was his forehead, devoid of the gold crown, that touched hers.

In an instant, she was seeing through another pair of eyes, and it was undoubtedly clear whose eyes they were.

The roar of battle filled the darkness around her as the dragon of Ra flew overhead. There had been no time in the surprise attack for anyone to join the shadow creatures in their aerial assault. When she turned her head, white hair could be seen in the corner of her eye, and she knew for certain that her back was well guarded. The thief wouldn't allow anyone else to kill her before he did.

Isis mentally shook her head. What was happening?

/I'm sorry. This doesn't usually happen. Atemu's always nearby to ground me when I have to do this./

A familiar voice, if only recently so. /Ate- Yugi/

She felt, rather than saw, the teenager nod. /I'll pull us out in a moment, but I need to talk to Atemu, and then you, first./

/I'm here, hikari/ Atemu's voice said, and it was to Isis as though sun and shadow met together in an embrace. /Forgive me for the abrupt calling./

/Better than running the risk of losing you after our enemy has already surrendered/ Yugi said, a humorous tint to his voice. /But now the entire camp knows that 'Atemu' and 'Bakura' have returned from the dead to save Egypt. Where are you/

/Maybe two days' flight north, but we planned to begin heading east at first light/ Atemu said, and both Isis and Yugi caught a brief memory of hands drawing a path toward the capitol on a battered chart. /We'll clear the road for you and meet in Alexandria. A suitable place for our reunion, wouldn't you say/

/You've been spending too much time with Seto. That's what I would say/ Yugi retorted. /Pay attention to your battle./

/As you command/ the late pharaoh joked. /Isis, keep him out of trouble for me. Until then./

Atemu's attention turned outward as Yugi's moved to Isis, who was wondering if it was possible to hyperventilate while visiting another's mind.

/Isis, we need you to keep addressing and treating Ryou and I as though we were Bakura and Atemu, just until we join up with them again/ the pale youth instructed. /Ryou will be telling Shada much of the same, and Seth is already in on the secret. Mahado too. Longer than Seth, actually. It was I who lured Seth into the desert, where Mahado guided us to Atemu and our camp. Do you understand/

/I think so/ she said shakily. /I won't tell anyone./

/Good/ he said. /Isis, open your eyes./

When she complied, it was to almost immediately meet Shada's shaky gaze. He was pale under the sun-darkened skin and trembling. If he had received a similar experience as she had, Isis couldn't blame him. Touching Bakura's mind would undoubtedly be a terrifying thing.

In their distraction, it took the two a moment to realize that they were no longer being blinked by the light still emanating from the hikari, nor were any of the men in the new army. Their own, however, still crouched with arms thrown over their eyes to protect them, many uttering prayers to Ra. It did not take long for Isis and Shada to join their men. There was no doubt now that the gods were on their side in this war.

-

As the battle ran down, the two yami began recalling the shadows, leaving at least one clump for each surviving soldier from the attacking army, to guard them until Seto could attend to them all.

"We'll be able to move much more quickly if we send all of the noncombatants to meet with the others," Marik said as he and Atemu surveyed the work being done in the healers' tent. It was lit by a few small oil lamps hung from strategic points, lamps scrounged from the mejia's packs. "They're fairly safe from attack now that we've gone full circle around their camp and they've taken out the head army of the enemy."

"I doubt that they would all agree with you," Atemu commented. "And there are several that I don't believe Seth's people are prepared to see yet."

Marik nodded. "Shadi, Sugoroku and my sister. I suppose their appearance would come as somewhat of a shock. However, I would like to meet their past selves, maybe before we've traumatized them all by our army's appearance in Alexandria."

The pharaoh raised an eyebrow, glancing at the tomb keeper from the corner of his eye. "Are you implying that you wish to go with them?"

"I'm sure that Seth could use the aid of the scales at such a time," the blond said, smiling. "And even if there is low risk to our people moving over the desert, there is some. Who knows the desert better than I? The mejia rarely ever left their fortress, and the same goes for my people. For most of our Japanese court, this is the first time they've been to Egypt. Even Sugoroku spent most of his trips here hopping from one dig to the next, and that was with a guide."

"We'll see what the others think," Atemu concluded. With a last glance over the injured, he strode from the tent to grab a time slot in the baths before Bakura could. Hopefully, Seth would finish his task soon so that he could fully release the shadows. Maintaining the balance at such a distance to his hikari was more taxing than he would have liked.

/Yugi, I need you to pass on a message for me./

-

Isis watched the newly titled prince with worry when his eyes briefly clouded over. After a moment, the teenager nodded to whatever it was that he heard, and red eyes cleared once again. She was unsure, but the priestess had her suspicions that he had just spoken to Atemu. Obviously, she could not be certain because the other time she'd noticed them speaking was when she was in their minds and was unable to see either royals' faces.

"-What did he say?-" Ryou asked softly, laying a hand on his friend's shoulder. Isis and Shada weren't sure if they'd ever get used to seeing the two act as companions, even if they weren't truly Atemu and Bakura.

"-We're to remain here for several days,-" the puzzle bearer said, raising his gaze to Seth's face to be sure that the pharaoh was paying attention. The blue-eyed man nodded solemnly, noting with interest that the glow surrounding the two hikari was beginning to dim. "-They may be sending us some more of Our people so that they might move faster in their last strikes against those who remain of our enemy.-"

When the hikari's light become dim enough for their men to risk looking up to see what holy beings had been standing there in their midst, it was the same moment that Ra's own morning radiance reached them. Gasps and more prayers rang through the masses as they recognized their pharaoh standing there, the sunrise turning pale skin gold and setting fire to the dark red in his hair. His legendary puzzle shone like a beacon of power. To the men, a young god had appeared among them, and there was no doubt on the parentage of the man, for none other than Ra could produce such a son.

When they saw Ryou, however, there was a scramble for weapons by the soldiers who'd thought to arm themselves before heading to find the light. In an instant, the entirety of the arm that had come with Seth stood with their backs to the two hikari, protecting them. Seth and Mahado stood to either side of them as well, arms spread. But what startled the Egyptian army the most was when 'Atemu' himself wrapped his arms around the thief, glaring at them.

"-Stand down,-" Yugi ordered, doing a wonderful impression of his yami. "-Bakura has become Our friend and ally since our passing from this world. He will _not_ be harmed.-"

"-Return to your posts and your beds,-" Seth called over the whispers. "-Our holy cousin has ordered that we shall remain here for several days until we receive further word. These are Our orders.-"

Lowering their weapons, the royal army began to slowly move away, back to the camp. A brief shout in the third language Seth had heard in Atemu's camp from Mahado sent their men back as well, all the while sending warning glances to their newest comrades.

"-My pharaoh?-" Geb asked, as he and Shu were some of the few who remained. He kept sending nervous glancing to Mahado, wary of the magic that the former royal magician was said to have possessed, certainly more than his replacement did.

"-We had hoped to keep my cousin's presence secret for a while longer, but apparently that is now impossible,-" Seth said with a sigh. "-My priests, you see before you a miracle of the gods. Ra himself has returned my cousin and his companions to us in our hour of need. We are to be grateful, and to show our gratitude through our treatment of their gift.-"

"-That was cruel, Seth,-" Mahado whispered as the two panicked and practically fell over themselves in order to prostrate themselves in front of the hikari. "-Funny, but cruel.-"

"-It was effective,-" the pharaoh replied back, bending down to help Shada and Isis to their feet. "-Their worship will translate to the men, and there will be no question on exactly what we have here.-"

"-I think that my yami would approve,-" Ryou commented cheerfully, the brightness of his mood doing more than a little to freak out the four priests.

"-That usually isn't a good thing,-" Seth said, smirking.

By the time they returned to camp, it had been miraculously cleaned, and every man in the original army stood to attention, falling neatly to their knees as Yugi passed by them. Looking around, the hikari flushed. "-Please, all of you should be getting some rest. We were just in battle yesterday. My own army sleeps. You should as well. The next few days will be busy. On the third morning, we can expect a large group of people, very few of them warriors, so we must prepare for them. Now off to bed, all of us.-"

"-So, do you know who in all is coming?-" Ryou asked as they settled into the royal tent once again, Isis and Shada sleeping in their own this time. Listening, Seth propped his head up on an arm from his pallet.

"-Marik, Mokuba, Anzu, Shizuka, half of the tomb keepers, Mizuto and pretty much every mejia who isn't a fighter, mostly women and children with a few elders scattered in,-" the hikari listed off. "-They're bringing most of the large tents with them too, from the sounds of it, so we shouldn't have too many space problems. Once they arrive, Atemu wants us to start heading toward Alexandria, which is where he and the remaining others will meet us.-"

"-Atemu would choose such a place for his flashy entrance,-" Seth said with an amused smile, shaking his head. "-Now, I'm tired, you're tired, and so we're all going to follow our own advice and go to sleep. If anyone tries to wake us, we'll threaten to sick Bakura on them.-"

"-Ha, ha. Very funny.-"

--------

1. Remember, Yugi and Ryou are pretending to be their yami at the moment, so they're wearing the contacts most of the time.


	9. Madmen and Headphones

A/N: I can't believe it. I'm eighteen! My birthday was this Tuesday and really, it doesn't quite feel real yet, not even after I registered to vote this afternoon. Scary! Does mean a lot of good things though. Like that fact that I can now _legally _read and write the hentai that I've been reading and writing for years now anyway. Plus, I can buy yaoi at SakuraCon this year! Yatta! Is very happy. Anywho, this chapter has actually been written for about a week now, but the typing has been made extremely slow by the fact that I keep slicing my fingertips in Glass Design, which makes it rather awkward to type. That and stabbing them while I'm sewing. Ouch. But, all is well and here's the new chapter. Hope you like it. Oh, and special acknowledgements to reviewer "eh.sure.whatever" for submitting review number 69. I'm sure to dedicate a PWP to you at some point. On with the chapter!

P.S. Since the site's being evil and not letting me use my usual language marker for modern Arabic, I'll be using this:

"/.../"

"Return of the King"

Chapter Nine

Madmen and Headphones

It was only a few hours later when the camp woke for the day, though the hikari were still fast asleep when Seth and Mahado left the royal tent. A quick glance at the guards (four) posted at the door proved that two of Atemu's men had joined the pair of Seth's. The latter two kept glancing uneasily at their companions, both of which bore marks labeling them as mejia.

"/The prince and Bakura's light?/" one asked.

"/They still sleep within,/" Mahado replied. The guards nodded.

"-What language is that that you speak?-"

Mahado jumped and turned. He hadn't noticed Shada and Isis approaching them from behind. "-Isis, please, don't sneak up on me. I have enough shocks with Bakura in my camp. Too many more and I may die from stress.-" He paused before tacking on an afterthought. "-Again.-"

Shada punched the shadow creature in the shoulder. "-Not funny. Besides, I'm curious too.-"

"-It's the language that Atemu's men speak,-" Seth answered for his friend. "-In their camp, three languages are spoken regularly. That was one, our own Egyptian is another, and you heard Bakura and Atemu speak in the other. It is their preferred.-"

"-By their names, you mean...-" Isis trailed off meaningfully.

The magician nodded. "-He is my master as much as he was during our first lives, and Bakura is very much a different man. I can't imagine separating the two.-"

"-I can't imagine why they, the originals, haven't killed each other,-" Shada said with a snort.

"-When it all boils down, I think they're civil, sometimes even nice, to each other because they don't want to upset their hikari,-" Seth said thoughtfully, glancing to Mahado for confirmation. "-Before the camps split, Bakura practically told me that he changed for Ryou's sake.-"

"-Don't tell me that they've started to let him watch over the children too,-" Shada said, eyes widening. "-Because _that _I won't believe.-"

"-Whether or not they allow him, the tomb keeper and mejia children love him. Even Mokuba follows him around when his brother's busy. Bakura's great with kids.-"

"-Mana, where have you been?-" Mahado asked, facing his apprentice with a raised eyebrow. his gaze lingered on the assortment of gold chains and bangles that most certainly had not been part of her normal uniforms as a student magician or a shadow creature. "-Betting with the men _again_?-"

The girl blinked innocently up at them. "-What? It's not my fault that they have worse luck than someone meeting Kaiba when he's in a bad mood. I don't even challenge them, just accept their bets.-"

As the older magician shook his head in despair, Isis stepped up to the girl. "-Mana, who are Mokuba and Kaiba?-"

"-Whoops, wasn't supposed to mention them yet, though I suppose it doesn't really matter with Mokuba because you'll be meeting him soon,-" Mana said, cheeks coloring faintly. "-Kaiba'll be staying with the pharaoh until we join up again. And now to make my spectacular exit, I'll go wake up the others.-"

Mahado's eyes widened in alarm. "-Mana, wait!-"

She vanished past the tent flap.

Seth's smile was positively evil. "-Wait for it...-"

"Mana!"

"Get out! We're not dressed!"

The young magic user quickly ran back out of the tent with her hands protecting the back of her head, heavy objects flying out after her. "Sorry, sorry, sorry..." She was beat red. Taking clues from that and the tone of the shouts, those who didn't speak Japanese still didn't need much of a translation.

When it was deemed safe for the adults to enter, it was to see Ryou helping Yugi to apply his kohl, the pale haired hikari having had his done already. Shada visibly twitched at the sight.

"-Good morning,-" Ryou said, finishing his work with a nod of approval. "-Done. You're fit to face the masses.-"

"-Almost,-" Mahado corrected, stepping forth and picking up the crown on his way. "-You forgot this.-"

The normally violet-eyed boy grimaced. "-Do I have to, Mahado? You know I'm not really Atemu, and I'm not used to being treated--"

"-They think you are and you need to get used to being treated according to your title at least some of the time,-" the magician interrupted. "-Marik may have convinced his clan that you wished to live quietly, well, as quietly as a dueling champion can, but do you really think that the mejia will leave either of you alone now? Ten to one says that Bakura gave them your address just to stir things up after we return.-"

"-You forgot phone number, email and fax,-" Ryou piped up, confusing the mortal Egyptians with the unfamiliar terms.

The other hikari groaned, reluctantly allowing Mahado to set the crown into place. "-I think he's reached a new level of sadism.-"

-

"You know, it'd probably be better for your neck if you just rode the horse backwards."

Rolling his eyes, Mokuba twisted back around on his mount to face forward, shooting a sarcastic glare to Marik, who had been ordered under pain of being fed to the blue-eyes to keep the pre-teen in sight until they met up with the others. Since leaving the main camp, he'd been watching it fade into the distance. "Very funny. How long's it going to take for us to get there?"

"Maybe a day, maybe two," Marik said, purple eyes scanning the desert ahead of them. "Depends on how well people can keep the pace. Remember that not everyone's on a horse."

The boy glanced up to the sky to see the comforting image of Mizuto circling protectively above him, ready to attack if anything should threaten its master's heart. The sight along should have been enough to discourage attacks upon their caravan.

"How come I couldn't stay with Seto?" Mokuba asked, pulling his hood up to protect his face against the sun. "Most of them don't speak Japanese. I won't be able to talk to people."

"The priest wished you to be safe, Mokuba," Rashid consoled. The adopted Ishtar rode in his usual place at Marik's side. "They'll be moving very swiftly between battles, which will be fierce. You are still inexperienced, and have no ancient memories to draw upon and guide your actions."

"And don't forget, Yugi and Ryou will be there too," Marik added, a mischievous expression growing on his face, "and Mana."

The brothers laughed as the younger male's face burned red, glaring at them both. "I do not have a crush on the dark magician girl! She grew up with Atemu! She's five thousand years old!"

"Pretty cute for being five thousand years old," Marik teased, smirking. "And besides, she's only thirteen right now. We're in the past, remember?"

"You will die now."

-

The men in the Egyptian army tried not to stare. Really, they did. But despite their best efforts to be discrete and respectful, it wasn't everyday that you see your late pharaoh and his equally late worst enemy walking around the camp, with milk pale skin, and enjoying each other's company.

Every now and then, both would freeze and run back into the nearest test, which would then proceed to glow as it tried to contain the brilliance with which the pair shown. The protectiveness of Mahado and Seth over them escaped no one's notice, neither did the brief moments when one or the other would pause in whatever they were doing, eyes turned inward. Usually, they would immediately go to find Seth afterwards with some sort of news. Mana and the men had a couple of bets running on just who they were listening to.

"-How close are they?-" Seth asked, stepping up to Yugi. The teenager had been holding vigil at the edge of their camp for several hours now, with a number of soldiers standing off-duty guard over the pharaoh's hikari.

"-I don't know,-" the teenager said quietly, keeping a mind on the presence of their audience. "-Neither my other half nor Ryou's are among them. Our news comes at the same speed as they do. But they left early morning the day before yesterday, so it should be soon.-"

"-The scouts will undoubtedly come running when they see them,-" the pharaoh said. He laid a hand on Yugi's shoulder. "-Come and eat with us. Geb and Shuu have been whining that we've been keeping you to ourselves.-"

The hikari grinned, raising his voice. "-Since when does the pharaoh give in to the demands of their priests? Especially when their fathers had the arrogance to name them after a god?-" He bolted.

All eyes were on Seth as he stared after his 'cousin.' Then, a slow smile began to creep onto his face onto his face, sending shivers down the soldiers' spines. "-Atemu, I'm hoping you're ready to re-cross the Nile.-" Crimson eyes peaked at him from around the corner of a nearby tent. "-When I get my hands on you..!-"

It wasn't long until Ryou joined in, the pair teaming up (and giving people white hairs while they did it) against him. The hikari declared themselves winners after they doubled around and tackled the former priest, sitting smugly on his legs and stomach.

"-Our pharaoh, there's a--" the runner stopped mid-though as he took in the odd sight. "-Lord Pharaoh?-"

With a short cough, Seth rolled, dislodging Ryou and Yugi from their seats, and stood. He brushed sand from his clothes and hair before straitening the many ornaments he wore. "-Continue.-"

Working his jaw, the running found his voice. "-A caravan has been spotted moving toward us on the horizon. We cannot tell whether or not they're hostile yet and beg for your guidance.-"

A jingling of gold drew the pharaoh's attention to Ryou, who was, in turn, concentrating on the ring he held suspended between his hands. A lone point was raised and remained so, quivering.

"-Which direction?-" Seth asked, turning back to the runner, who nervously glanced between his pharaoh and the item. Shakily, he raised an arm to indicate the same direction as the ring, not daring to speak. "-The bearer of the millennium scales leads them. They are Our allies. Guide them in. Now cousin, our meal awaits.-"

-

Darkness was falling when Rashid spotted the group of riders on horseback moving quickly toward them, one of which carried a banner with the pharaoh's signet on it. Following his brother's line of sight, Marik held up a hand to signal everyone to stop.

"Looks like they sent a welcoming party," the blond said, reaching over to shake Mokuba's shoulder. The Kaiba had draped himself over his horse and fallen asleep two hours earlier. "We're almost there, brat."

"Don't call me that," Mokuba said sleepily, rubbing his eyes. "Are we going to be able to get there tonight?"

"Better rest up and make a better impression in the morning," Marik said. He raised an arm in greeting as soon as he was sure the riders would see it. "-Hail. Who sends you?-"

"-Are you the tomb keeper, Marik?-" the leader asked as they approached, still keeping a cautious distance in case they had to turn and flee. The leader of the strange caravan certainly looked odd enough, between his hair and his eyes, though at least his skin was properly dark. The boy near him, however, had the pale skin that they'd begun to think of as marking the people who had been to the underworld and then returned. A little ways behind them two equally pale women shared a horse.

"-That would depend on your answer to my question,-" the blond said, tipping his head to the side. The arm not holding the reigns of his horse reached under his cloak.

"-We are sent by his holiness, the living son of Ra, Pharaoh Seth, who sends us with the blessing of the resurrected god, Pharaoh Atemu,-" the man said bravely. He knew that if this strange man was the tomb keeper Marik, he would undoubtedly possess one of the seven items, and he'd been seeing too much of them lately for his comfort.

Marik relaxed, both of his hands becoming visible once again. "-Then yes, I am Marik. You may dismount, friends. We have been traveling since Ra rose, and will camp here tonight, accompanying you back in the morning.-" Leading by example, he slid to the ground and began to call out orders in Arabic. Once their guides had followed suit, albeit a little wearily, a boy came to collect all of the horses, leading them past the tents being quickly assembled and out of sight. "Mokuba, stay with Rashid. I'll deal with these four."

"Try not to annoy them too much," the pre-teen warned before starting off to follow the large Egyptian. He'd sounded amazingly like his older brother.

"-Brat-" Marik muttered humorously. Shaking his head, he turned back to the pack of Seth's men. "-You may relax, you know. We don't bite most of the time. Just don't get that kid mad at you. Believe me, a dragon's bite hurts.-"

The man who had been flying the banner looked at him with wide eyes. "-He's a dragon?-"

Ishizu's brother smirked as he casually pointed up. "-No, but _he _is.-"

Right on cue, Mizuto flew overheard, letting out a loud roar. In the distance, another answered back, the pitch a little higher.

"-The pharaoh's white dragon,-" one of them whispered in awe and fear. "-There are two? Why is this one here?-"

"-To protect Mokuba,-" Marik said with a grin. "-Dragon's heart as the kid is. But enough, they'll be lighting the fire soon and I'd rather not have to fight my way to a good spot. As for tonight, there is space enough in my tent.-"

-

Yugi wasn't quite sure how long it had been since he had enjoyed a truly peaceful morning. He, Ryou and the court rose early for the morning prayers before taking their home in eating breakfast. The meal the previous night had been... odd, with Geb and Shuu breaking into prayers almost every time one of the hikari so much as spoke to ask for someone to pass the bread. However, it had been rather hilarious when Ryou had starting muttering in Japanese, sending the new priests into fits of hysteria.

But, back to the so far peaceful morning. By the very fact of how peaceful it was, Yugi knew that the calmness couldn't possibly last. The universe simply didn't work that way for the item holders. So, it was no surprise when the four men Seth had sent out the night before came riding frantically back into the camp, looking scared out of their wits even as they jumped down from their horses to bow down before Seth.

"-Report,-" the blue-eyed man said, forcing back a smirk.

"-My lord Pharaoh, a madman approaches,-" he said in a rush of words. Realizing exactly what he'd said, and to whom, he began to stutter. "-I meant- that is- oh, Ra.-"

"-You're not the first to call Marik mad, so don't worry,-" Yugi said through his snickering. "-He encourages it.-"

Unsure of what to do when being spoken to by the resurrected pharaoh, the man just stood there, frozen.

"-How far are they?-" Seth asked with a sigh, breaking his soldier from his daze.

Relieved, the man opened his mouth to answer.

"Yugi!"

"-Not far enough,-" he said dryly, revising what he'd originally planned to say.

The youngest Kaiba had left behind the rest of his caravan upon reaching the camp, charging toward the center until he'd found the young prince. Yugi had to act quickly to avoid falling over as he suddenly found himself supporting the pre-teen's weight, and Mokuba was quickly growing taller than him.

"-My lord Pharaoh, that boy was protected by a second white dragon,-" the guide whispered, watching with wide eyes as Mokuba happily explained to Yugi what he and Marik had done to their guides since last evening. Fortunately for the man's dignity, the only other person who spoke Japanese in earshot was the prince of games himself.

"-Not unexpected,-" Seth said, glancing upward to where the two dragons were greeting each other after a time of separation. "-Mokuba is a very important child, heir to a rather large empire.-"

It was then that Marik caught up to his rampant charge. The clan head was certainly drawing stares between his odd coloring and the golden scales tucked into his belt. The guide flinched and, feeling pity for him, Seth dismissed the man to go and recover. Rashid wasn't far behind his brother. They made a show of bowing to both Yugi and Seth before speaking.

The effect was rather ruined by Marik's grin, however. "So, did it work?"

"Made Isis and Shada faint," Yugi said with an equally large grin.

Marik turned to his brother. "You can pay up after dinner."

"-More betting?-" Seth asked. Although he didn't understand Japanese, he had definitely learned to recognize "pay up" since it always came between the end of a bet and the exchanging of some piece of jewelry.

"-We had to leave most of our games behind,-" Yugi said with a shrug. He shot a half-glare to Mokuba. "-Though I know _someone _brought a bag full of tech.-"

The pre-teen didn't react. Due to the volume of his headphones, he hadn't heard.

At dinner, it was announced that they'd be returning home to Alexandria in the morning. Getting over the oddness of their allies, the Egyptian army invited them (through rather interesting attempts at sign language before Marik felt pity for them and stepped in to translate) to share a large bonfire and the last of the rationed alcohol. The men went while the women and children, those who didn't join their husbands at the fire, joined the court at Yugi and Ryou's invitation. It was with a little disgruntlement that Mokuba found himself being herded with the other children to the second gathering. Marik couldn't seem to decide which was more entertaining, so was switching randomly. The alcohol added to the already rowdy men made for some interesting stories, but the court reactions were just too funny.

One of Seth's armbands exchanged hands quite often that night. The fact that Ryou wore it when everyone separated out to sleep made a lot of people twitch.


	10. Taking Alexandria

A/N: This chapter took far too long for me to write.

P.S. Since the site's being evil and not letting me use my usual language marker for modern Arabic, I'll be using this:

"/.../"

"Return of the King"

Chapter Ten

Taking Alexandria

By the morning, Shada had already decided that it was odd to see someone else handling his scales, especially someone as unorthodox as Marik, who wasn't even a priest.

"-My sister has the Tauk,-" the blond man informed him with a shrug as they waited for the camp to finish its preparations for travel. "-Bakura still has the ring, and he's guarding the eye. Things back home are very different from the way they were here. I think the only thing that's stayed the same is that Atemu still holds the puzzle.-"

"-But Yugi holds it,-" Shada said, confused.

Marik shook his head. "-They're two parts of the same soul, remember? When they split, so did the items.-"

"-I think things were simpler during the shadow wars,-" the priest stated flatly, catching sight of Mokuba and Mana chatting with the hikari as the four munched on a loaf of bread. "-Ba of Atemu or not, I always have a feeling that your prince is plotting against us.-"

"-Oh, he is,-" Marik said cheerfully. "-And I guarantee, once we've hit the road, Ryou will be communicating with Bakura so that our dear thief can join in.-"

Shada nearly choked on hearing the words 'dear thief,' barely keeping his dignity intact. He could still remember the mad cackling he'd heard echoing around his head when he'd been forced to brush minds with the tomb robber.

"-And just what are they plotting?-" Seth asked suspiciously, leading his horse toward them.

Violet eyes turned absolutely innocent. "-Why, your triumphant return to Alexandria of course.-"

The pharaoh saw through the act in an instant. "-Try not to give every single man in my army a heart attack at once.-"

"Mokuba, think your brother will be willing to be with Atemu when we get there? We're pretty sure my yami's already convinced Ishizu."

Marik grinned evilly at the shouted question from Ryou as the hikari joined Mokuba, the two of them and the boy already mounted for the long journey across the sands. "-Too late. They're convincing Kaiba to stand by your cousin's side to greet us.-"

The priest glanced between the two in confusion as Seth groaned, burying his face in his hands. "-Seth? What's wrong with this Kaiba being present?-"

"-Don't you dare tell him!-" Yugi ordered, wrapping his arms around Seth's neck as he leaned down from his horse in a surprise attack. "-They don't know about the others yet! Bakura will feed you to Diabound if you spoil it, and Kuriboh will get any scraps left over.-"

"-What is it with your court and threatening me?-" Seth asked with a raised eyebrow, glancing sideways at the teenager leaning on him.

Yugi shrugged, an interesting gesture from his position. "-Atemu says I spend too much time with Bakura.-"

-

Not too far away from Alexandria a certain tomb robber sneezed. Hearing a snicker, he sent a cross-eyed glare to the Mejia riding beside him. "-Not a single word, Taita.-"

"-I've said nothing, old one,-" the young clan head said in his defense, though amusement was clear in his eyes. So far, the thief Bakura had sneezed seven times in the last half an hour and he had a habit of puffing up like a lightening-struck kitten after each time. "-Though it would seem that you are extremely popular today.-"

Seto and Atemu exchanged an amused glance as the Mejia clan head rode frantically past, followed closely by their favorite ring holder who was yelling death threats at the top of his lungs, seemingly unable to stick to any of the four languages he knew how to use.

"Bakura certainly seems to have made some friends on this trip," Atemu said, hiding a chuckle.

"Only if by 'friends' you mean 'future targets of homicide'," the high priest commented lightly, sending out a sweep for his dragons. Kisara called out to her master from above as the other two sent back a sense of health and safety. Mokuba was fine. "Do you suppose they've driven anyone insane yet?"

"Yugi's mentioned making Shada and Isis faint, and that they're still a little bit twitchy around Ryou, but otherwise not as of yet," the pharaoh replied. "Though it sounds like they may be close in the case of Seth's new priests."

"/My pharaoh, the city!/" One of the scouts rode toward them, horse nimbly dodging around Taita and Bakura. "/The enemy appears to still have a small group of men guarding the border. Our people stand guard along the walls. It has been under siege./"

"/Spread the word that we have one final battle,/" Atemu ordered with a nod. He met eyes with Seto. "All of the incarnations should cloak themselves. Will you tell the others?"

Seto's smirk wasn't nearly as humble as his response. "-If it is your will.-"

Preparations were made and the reduced army made ready for the charge. Broken off from his game of chase, Bakura rode up to where Atemu sat mounted upon his dragon, about to take off. "-I take it we're not summoning the shadows for this battle?-"

Atemu shook his head. "-The city remembers the shadows too well to not be frightened of them. Our few creatures will be more than enough.-"

"-And our very presence at the head of this army will terrify them no matter what other help we call.-" Bakura's grin promised the usual malicious mischief and more.

"-Which is why I'm certain that you'll be drawing as much attention to yourself as possible,-" Atemu said dryly. The thief gave him a mock salute as he took off into the air, Jou and Seto doing likewise on either side of him.

-

Aker was not a soldier. He had never wanted to be a soldier. He had never been trained as a soldier. Yet with most of his pharaoh's armies fighting abroad and the enemy camp surrounding their city he'd been given no choice but to become one. Arrows had picked off a few of their own as they guarded the walls but most of the soldiers who had been ordered to stay behind and protect the capital had been downed by the much slower hunger so that they and every other able-bodied man changed shifts often and slept for most of the day to conserve energy gained from the little amount of food they had remaining.

"-So I made a wager with Neferti's father that if the pharaoh and his army returns by the end of next week, I get to marry her without paying half of the bride price.-" His watch partner, Khnum, filled the silence with chatter to distract them both from the gnawing hunger. "-I'm not saying that she isn't worth every bit of gold he's asking for, but I'd like to be able to support my wife when I bring her home after the war. I'm only a potter. We don't make all that much money.-"

"-More than a baker's apprentice,-" Aker replied, rolling from his spot slumped against the outside wall to peer over. Nope, they hadn't left yet, but at least they weren't shooting at them again. The only things in the sky were three flying shapes above the horizon, long winged and graceful. Seeing nothing important, he rolled back, still listening with half an ear to Khnum's marriage plants.

Wait a moment.

His partner jumped as he leapt to his feet, running to the corner watchtower where a telescope was kept. He shoved aside the drafted soldier manning it. Aker frantically moved its stand to direct the crystal lens toward the three shapes. By the benu…

"-Aker, what in Ra's name has gotten into you?-" Khnum demanded, clamoring up into the tower, chest heaving as he panted for breath. "-What did you see out there?-"

He waved the potter up the ladder. "-Come and tell me that I haven't been struck by the sun. Or the shadows.-"

Khnum gave him an odd look. "-The shadows? They've been sealed since Pharaoh Atemu's death.-"

As the other man reached the top of the tower, Aker pointed out over the sands toward where the telescope was aimed. "-Tell that to them, then.-"

When Khnum had looked through the telescope he let loose a string of curses enough to make a tomb robber blush. "-Dragons! That's Pharaoh Seth's white dragon on the left and Pharaoh Atemu's in the center. Don't recognize the black one, but by _Ra!_-" He nearly fell in his haste to lean over the side of the tower and call down to their commander. "-Captain! You need to see this!-"

Aker looked back down at their enemy as their captain took over the telescope. The previously inactive and sleepy regiment had jumped to their feet and was rapidly arming itself, some pointing out away from the city in fear and worry. What was that out there, moving toward them?

"-By the gods,-" the captain whispered, pale. "-By the gods and the shadows and the past pharaohs in their entire lineage. The rumors are true.-" He stepped back from the telescope. "-Pharaoh Atemu has returned and he brings an army to protect Egypt. Alert the general.-"

-

"Looks like they've noticed us," Seto remarked, bringing his dragon just below Atemu's – far enough apart to keep their wings from colliding. There was enough activity on and bellow the city walls to compete with a stepped-on anthill.

"Then we should go and greet them." Atemu raised his arm in signal to his troops. "Remember, keep you hood up and your face hidden."

The high priest snorted, only just refraining from rolling his eyes at Seth's cousin. Jou would probably hear about it from someone and that would be the end.

As their army came into range, a cheer went up from the walls and the city beyond, nearly drowning out the cries that arose from their enemy. The guards atop the walls sent down volleys of arrows with renewed vigor, careful not to hit the mounted Mejia and tomb keepers who were marked by their distinctive cloaks.

Grinning with adrenaline, Jou guided Kage to swoop low over the walls, his rider reaching an arm out to swing a startled archer onto the dragon's back.

Aker was reminding himself how to breathe. One moment he had been aiming into the crowd of men at the base of the walls and the next he found himself air born, barely keeping a hold on his bow as he scrabbled to hold onto the spirit (the man had to be a spirit to be in Pharaoh Atemu's army, the coloring of his skin and hair aside) to avoid falling to his death.

"I'll get you lower in a second so you can shoot better," the spirit said, his speech rapid and not in any language the baker-turned-guard had ever heard. He seemed to realize Aker's confusion. "Right, you can't understand me. Um, what were those words? -Lower. You shoot.-"

Understanding, Aker nodded and slowly released his death grip, reaching for an arrow from the bundle he'd tied to his back. Instantly he regretted the action as the black dragon rolled in the air to avoid colliding with Pharaoh Seth's white dragon, whose rider dressed in a concealing cloak of the same color.

"Kaiba, you bastard!" his golden haired champion cursed, shaking his fist at the pair. "Watch where you're flying!"

The other's calm reply seemed to enrage the man further, and Aker worried for his safety. Weren't they supposed to be on the same side?

The spirits' fight was swept from his mind abruptly as a golden dragon moved its way between the black and white dragons and Aker found himself staring at Pharaoh Atemu himself. "Jou, Kaiba, can we try to remember that our enemy is down there? You can return to your war after we've returned home."

"But Atemu, if I kill him here, no one will find the body," the man now labeled as Jou protested, shooting a glare to Kaiba.

Atemu turned his attention to Aker. "-Archer, try to keep them from murdering each other. I don't want to explain their deaths to their younger siblings.-"

"-Then you should keep the mutt off of the battlefield,-" Kaiba called out as the three dragons separated, gold going high, white sweeping around the combined forces, and the black dropping low as promised.

Praying that they weren't going to roll again, Aker readied an arrow. He'd wait until after the battle to have his heart failure.

Thankfully for all parties, except for the horribly out-powered enemy, it was far from being a long battle. The few survivors were herded down into the prisons to await Seth's judgment once the Pharaoh returned.

Alexandria wasn't quite sure how to treat her saviors, the city never having been saved by an army composed of pale spirits, priests completely shrouded in white cloaks, shadow creatures, and Mejia. Top it off with the detail that the mess was led by the late Pharaoh Atemu, sealer of the shadows, and everything was a confusing tangle. Most of the population didn't want to think about the fact that Thief King Bakura seemed to have become one of Atemu's top generals.

When the odd group vanished into the palace walls the city breathed a sigh of relief, no longer fearing that the wrong glance would offend and bring the wrath of the gods down upon their heads. Now only the city officials and lower priests would have to deal with the army of impossibilities. Pity for them.

"Now _this_, I could get used to."

Atemu snorted in irritation as he walked into the audience chamber to find Bakura lounging in his throne. Again. Upon their arrival it had quickly become his favorite spot to sit, especially around any of the hundreds of people it would irritate, horrify, or anger.

His current target was a group of lower priests who were convinced that Atemu was actually Ra in disguise to test his people. The sight sent them into fits of sputtered cries of blasphemy and general demands for blood before they ran back to their temple for purification rites. As much as the former pharaoh would never admit it, he was thankful, as it gave him at least half a moment's peace.

"Was that really necessary?" he asked the thief with a raised eyebrow, casually leaning against a convenient pillar.

"No, but it was fun," Bakura smirked, swinging himself from his seat on tanned arms. "Just be glad your precious priests of Anubis haven't tried to embalm you yet. They never did get to the first time around. Makes them feel cheated."

Atemu sighed. "It'd be interesting to see them try. They'd quickly learn that our bodies aren't mortal." He watched Bakura with suspicion as the white-haired man made his way toward the hall. "Where are you going?"

The other's grin was absolutely evil. "I've got some old 'friends' to visit. Don't wait up."

Bakura was pretty sure that he could find his way through the slums of Alexandria blind, backwards, and seasick if he wanted to. The locals were giving him plenty of space, not because they recognized him, but because of the cloak he'd snitched from Kaiba and the golden pendant he wore over it. No one wanted to mess with any of Atemu's generals, especially when they didn't know what lay beneath the hooded cloaks.

His favorite tavern, the Dancing Harem, hadn't changed a bit since his death, not even when it came to the scantily clad women hanging out the second floor windows calling down to passers by with deals and offerings. Chuckling, he pushed the shabby door aside and entered with old familiarity.

Walking up to the counter, he claimed a stool and raised a hand to summon drink. Unsurprisingly, it was the owner, an old and grizzly man who Bakura had worked with plenty of times, that responded. "-What's your pleasure, good sir?"

Under the hood, Bakura smirked. "-_Good_ sir? You wound me, Anu. And I'll take my usual."

Choking, Anu ducked down to see under white cloth and nearly dropped the cup he'd been wiping out to use. "-By the Nile herself, Bakura? You're dead! I mean, I've heard the rumors, but--"

"-Don't worry, I'm still dead,-" the younger (sort of. Time locked in a hunk of blood gold didn't count) thief said cheerfully, taking the glass and reaching past his friend to grab a bottle. "-Think my body's laying in a tomb somewhere. Or was it a temple? Bah, doesn't matter. So, I hear you worked fast after I died.-"

He pulled his hood down and tossed the cloak onto the empty stool next to him, revealing the more familiar one of blood red. Anu stared at him for a moment before grabbing back the bottle and pouring himself a large mug, downing most of it in one gulp. "-Someone had to keep the rabble under control. How much longer are you here for?-"

"-Just a couple of days, until your new pharaoh gets his ass back to the capital and gives me back my hikari,-" Bakura said, glancing around the room. No small amount of people suddenly found their drinks fascinating. "-Then we all hitch a ride home and I can go back to bugging Atemu without having to worry about someone stabbing me with a spear.-"

"-So the two of you stopped trying to kill each other?-" the old thief asked in surprise. "-I thought you'd be at it until Ra himself died of old age.-"

Unwittingly copying said pharaoh, Bakura snorted. "-Kind of pointless now, don't you think? We're both dead, not to mention that it would upset the hikari, which is not something you want to do. If I attack Atemu, his hikari gets upset with me, which gets my hikari upset with me. When _he's _upset with me, it's whine, fuss, sulk, all the time. And that's not even mentioning the eyes! Thankfully, it works both ways, so he can't attack me either.-"

"-I take it that these 'hikari' are people then,-" Anu said, grabbing another bottle. The one clearly wasn't going to be enough. "-You haven't spawned, have you?-"

The dead man's laugh echoed off of the tavern walls and the other patrons shivered.

-----

1. Japanese, Ancient Egyptian, modern Arabic and English.


	11. Alexandria, Past and Present

A/N: Geh, I'm tired. Try keeping up on rest when you're running sound for a school play, taking a karate class that meets three times a week, designing and making costumes for at least three people for SakuraCon (which is less than three weeks away), writing a novel for a senior project, doing homework, trying to complete two extra correspondence classes, one of which is a language course, keeping together a social life which includes keeping one adopted little sister out of trouble, and updating a number of fanfics. Fun, ne? Anyway, here's the shiny new chapter. I hope you enjoy it.

P.S. Since the site's being evil and not letting me use my usual language marker for modern Arabic, I'll be using this:

"/.../"

"Return of the King"

Chapter Eleven

Alexandria, Past and Present

It was a slow trek to Alexandria but Seth's army was eager to return home after the long and hard war. It was to their confusion that Atemu's army closed ranks around the resurrected pharaoh and tomb robber, both of whom once again donned concealing cloaks.

"-Would you be looking forward to going to the place where you died?-" Marik asked when a group of soldiers cornered him for an explanation. "-Especially when neither of them was actually buried.-"

"-But surely you would know their exact reasons,-" Nen, a chariot driver, insisted. "-You're always with them, and you speak the language of the high spirits.-"

Marik gave him a funny look. "-The language of the high spirits? Just how much did you drink at breakfast his morning?-"

"-The language that Pharaoh Atemu and the thief Bakura speak amongst themselves,-" one of the spearmen, Upton, clarified. "-Don't deny it. The dragon child speaks it too, and there's no way that he's a mortal child. All of the pale spirits speak it, and they all stay close to Pharaoh Atemu.-"

"-It's not a matter of ranking, just location,-" the tomb keeper said with a shake of the head. "-My clan and the Mejia are from a place very similar to this. Those who speak what you call 'high spirit' just happen to live somewhere that's very different. Some have never even been to Egypt before now, or only once before, so they never learned your language. The youngest two, Mokuba and Shizuka, are the younger siblings of our two dragon callers, who didn't want to leave them unguarded. Anzu happens to be Atemu's favorite dancer. Most of those who came with us are handlers of shadow creatures and valuable in battle.-"

"-How many of them could there actually be?-" Nen asked, twisting his head around in hopes of catching sight of one of said shadow users.

"-More than there used to be,-" the blonde sighed. How much longer was it going to be?

Seth did not like the resemblance to Bakura that Ryou was taking on as they neared the capital. The seemingly random bursts of laughter that emerged between the pair was not helping, especially when he had no idea what they were talking about, seeing as they were speaking in Japanese and not Egyptian.

"-I give up,-" he announced, catching their attention. "-What are the two of you talking about?-"

"-We're trying to figure out whether or not Ra would let us do something,-" Ryou said. "-He tends to indulge us most of the time, but it's not usually this big.-"

Nearby, Geb choked. "-_Ra _indulges you? In what?-"

"-Well, in coming back here, for one,-" Ryou continued. "-Atemu asked to be able to help his people, so Ra brought us. I suppose we'll have to ask when he comes to take us back home.-"

"-I fear the favor you intend to ask,-" Seth said dryly.

The new priests had different concerns. "-When he comes to take you back? Then you're not staying, Pharaoh Atemu? You plan to leave us again?-"

Yugi nodded. "-Of course. I am no longer your pharaoh. That title belongs to my dear cousin now. My companions and I will return home once we have seen the court safely to the palace. We have responsibilities to tend to and people who wait for us.-"

"-Will your armies be returning with you?-" Shu asked, thinking of the numbers and magic. "-If they remained, Egypt would stay safe from future attacks.-"

"-_All _who came with us must return with us,-" Ryou said sternly. "-There can be no exceptions.-"

Conversations cut off as thee city came into view, Alexandria's walls a truly welcome sight for all. Egypt's army exclaimed in awe at the sight of three dragons circling over the capital, one of which a white that was quickly joined by the two that'd escorted them.

"Nii-san seems to be in fine form," Mokuba said flatly, also watching the dragons. "You realize he's probably not going to admit to any of this once we get back home, right?"

Yugi smirked, an odd expression on a hikari's face. "He might have to."

Greetings were called down to them from the walls as the great gate was hastily opened. Heads down, the hikari kept close to Seth, flanked on either side by Shada and Isis, Mahado and Mana staying close behind their prince.

"-Why am I getting a bad feeling about this?-" Isis asked quietly, leaning slightly past Yugi to talk to Seth.

"-The last remnants of your powers of precognition?-" the young pharaoh suggested, smirking.

The parade made its way to the palace steps where the court separated itself from the army to continue inside leading them from a distance. When they entered the throne room there were many varied and violent reactions. Shu and Geb screamed while Isis and Shada swayed dangerously on their feet before finally deciding to clutch each other while sinking to the ground. Mokuba, however, couldn't have been happier. "Seto!"

The pre-teen broke away from the court and ran into his brother's arms, Kaiba stepping away from Atemu's side to meet him. "How much did you traumatize them?"

"_Seto_..."

Geb whimpered, head whipping around back and forth in an attempt to look at both Seth and Seto at once. "-Pharaoh Seth? What is happening?-"

"-My cousin's sense of humor, I believe,-" Seth said dryly.

Sending his brother back behind them, Kaiba stepped forward, making almost every pair of eyes rivet to the golden rod in his hand. "-My name is Seto Kaiba, high priest of Pharaoh Atemu. Thank you for watching my brother.-"

Isis and Shada had more important things to worry about. Their exact twins, for example. Not even pale and young versions, as Yugi was of Atemu, but mirror images with only a difference in clothing and the fact that their doubles each held a Millennium Item.

With a nod to his older cousin Atemu stepped forward. "-Welcome home. May I introduce Priest Shadi and Priestess Ishizu Ishtar, trusted members of my inner court. And I believe you all know thief king Bakura.-"

Shu firmed his jaw to speak. "-Our lord Pharaoh Atemu, I beg forgiveness for questioning you, but if you and the thief are here, then who have we been...-" He trailed off meaningfully, glancing back toward where the hikari stood. Or, rather, where they _had _been standing, because the moment attention had been removed them from, they'd begun sneaking out and around the group.

As though on cue Yugi and Ryou leapt out from behind twin pillars to tackle their respective yami, entrapping both in strong hugs as they felt their magic bind them back together after the long separation.

"-Didja miss us?-" Yugi chirped cheerfully, clinging to his yami's side and he looked around the room, gauging reactions. So far so good. No one had recovered from the shock enough to think about pulling out weapons. "-We brought them back, safe if not sound.-"

"-And we weren't hurt at all so you can't feed Seth to Diabound,-" Ryou added in, eyeing Bakura sternly. "-Ra would get mad at you anyway.-"

"-Since when _isn't _he mad at me?-" Bakura asked, raising an eyebrow at his hikari. He examined Ryou's face closely. "-You're plotting something, and you haven't told me what yet. Bad hikari.-"

"-Me, plot?-" he asked, eyes wide in false surprise. "-But I'm the light half, remember? I'm sweet and innocent.-"

White hair was thoroughly ruffled, the fond gesture making a few people choke in mounting shock. "-So is poisoned honey, hikari.-"

Ishizu glanced up, feeling a stirring in the air. "-Pharaoh, Prince Yugi, I believe it's time for our return. He comes.-"

All attention was taken from the court as a glow began to form in front of the two sets of half-souls. As the Egyptian and Shadow court began to realize just what it was, they fell to their knees to worship, even Bakura, much to Seth's surprise. Only the hikari remained standing, though it meant that they had to let go of their yami.

Ra regarded his people with a steady gaze, inwardly proud of their victory. Eventually, the golden gaze came to rest on Yugi and Ryou, both bowing in polite greeting. Extending his arms, he smiled. "-My children. Come here.-"

The pair readily left their other halves to tuck themselves under an arm of the sun god each, leaning against him. Bakura growled but couldn't protest further. When Ra bent down to hear Yugi's whisper, the entirety of Egypt's army was ready to die in shock. They had been in awe of him when they'd thought him to be Atemu, but now _Ra _was listening to him as though the hikari was his child.

Ra straightened up again after a moment, glancing at the two in bemusement before casting a look toward Seth's hunched form, the pharaoh still having yet to rise from his position of humility before the god. Then he looked back down at the two teenagers watching him with hope. "-You may, if you wish. For _one _week. No more. Atemu.-"

Having been given permission, the late pharaoh stood and began to gather their men, who arranged themselves into a semi-circle around the sun god and hikari. It was then that Seth and his court stood, refusing to let themselves miss the events stirring as they sent their army from the room.

"-Looks like we're about to ship out,-" Mahado said, casting a sad glance sideways to his old friends. "-I have to wonder what state the library's in by now. Never should have let Yugi convince me to allow that Noa kid to move in.-" The magician suddenly grinned. "-All three of you had better take care of yourselves, you hear? Don't make us come back again, or we'll bring the rest.-"

"-Who could possibly be worse than you and my dear cousin?-" Seth asked lightly, locking down on his vocal cords to keep his distress from showing.

"-Believe me, there's worse.-"

"-By the gods...-"

Isis was pale and shaking as she stared at Atemu's army. Groups of men and women were disappearing in flashes of light that could have only come from one source. She'd seen Ra's power in each day as he rose over Egypt, but to see it so obviously...

"-Master Mahado, it's time for us to go, too,-" Mana said, coming up and tugging on his arm. "-We should be there to meet them on the other side.-"

Mahado nodded and the mortals in their group stepped back in fright as shadows started to envelope the shadow creatures. When the shadows dispersed, they were gone. Their old friends fought back tears.

Soon, only Atemu and his court were left, the throne room significantly less crowded than before. The Seth look-alike (whom they realized must have been the infamous Seto), gave his incarnation a nod before he stepped up next to the other, golden-haired, dragon caller and their siblings, Jou giving a wave before they, too, vanished in a flash of light.

The old man who looked like Simon gathered together two women, one younger than the other, as well as a pale skinned man with dark hair before being sent back to wherever it was they came from. Marik pulled a long-haired man in with his family to leave, but not before flashing a rather ominous grin at Seth.

"-Go on ahead, we'll catch up,-" Ryou told Atemu when the puzzle bearer came up to collect him and Yugi. -Take Shadi with you.-"

The yami was immediately suspicious. "-What are the two of you up to?-"

"-Us, up to something?-" Yugi asked innocently.

Bakura shook his head. "-I believe you just had this conversation on the way here, hikari.-"

"-Snoop.-"

"-Brat.-"

Atemu laid a hand on the thief's shoulder. "-Come on, let's go. What's the worse they can do anyway?-"

"-I don't want to think about it,-" Bakura ground out, wincing. "-_You _don't live with Ryou.-"

The dead pharaoh was still laughing when Ra, shaking his head, sent them home with a confused Priest Shadi. Then he set his eyes on the aforementioned hikari. "It's time."

Stepping away from the god, the two began to glow. Seth opened his mouth for a final farewell to the pair he'd grown attached to when he realized that they were _still _grinning. At him.

Suddenly, they launched themselves at the started pharaoh, latching on with every ounce of strength they had. Yugi waved to the horrified priests. "-We'll send him home in a week! Nice meeting you all!-"

And then they were gone, Yugi, Ryou... and Seth.

-

Seth wasn't quite sure if he wanted to open his eyes just yet. When Yugi and Ryou had both latched onto him, there'd been a short eternity of consumed by a power that was many times stronger – _unimaginably_ stronger – than when he'd held the royal hikari during their summonings. And now that the swallowing power was gone he felt sand under his sandaled feet instead of the marble of his palace.

"/Yay, we're home!/" he heard a few children yell out in glee.

"/Be sure to signal the watch guards before you go charging though the gates,/" Marik called after them. "/And tell them that we've returned safely./"

"-You're safe, Seth,-" Yugi said softly as he released the pharaoh along with his fellow hikari. "-You're in our world.-"

_That _got Seth's attention, and his eyes shot wide open to see Atemu's army dismounting and removing their armor in a small rock ridge valley. The palace was gone, Alexandria was gone, and his court was gone.

"-We're actually quite a distance from your city's equivalent here,-" Ryou said, correctly reading their 'kidnap victim's' expression. "But it's still really different. This is the Valley of the Tomb Keepers.-"

"-We wanted to show you our town before parting ways and Ra gave us seven days,-" Yugi jumped in. The pair hoped to keep the man from panicking. "-Then he'll send you back home, unharmed.-"

"You know, they're never going to let him on the plane," Mokuba informed them, catching sight of the frazzled Seth as he chucked off his desert cloak in favor for the tank and cargo shorts he wore beneath.

"That's why your brother's taking us back to Domino in one of his private planes," Ryou said with a smirk. "It's either that or the shadows, and we wouldn't want to risk them recognizing him."

"Why do you guys always make me do the dirty work?" Mokuba asked with a sigh.

-

While not particularly pleased about being forced into their strange clothes again Seth found himself thoroughly distracted by their world's version of Alexandria.

The city had grown even more massive and was just as busy, if not more so, than its ancient counterpart. Impossibly smooth roads played host to enclosed carriages that needed nothing to pull them but still moved faster than he'd ever seen a horse-drawn one move. The local people dressed very similarly to his guides and most didn't give any of them a second glance, with the exception of a few children and young men and women who rushed up to them, chattering excitedly in one of their languages before scrambling for scraps of thin white papyrus that Yugi or one of the others wrote something on. More than a few of those also sent Seth a curious glance, but didn't approach him. This repeated every couple of minutes until they reached what Ryou informed him was a hotel.

"-It'll take a while for our transportation to reach us, so we'll spend the night here,-" the hikari said as they led the group up into a couple of identical rooms. "-Since only four people are supposed to stay in a room, you'll be sharing with Yugi, Atemu and Marik.-"

Seth gave him a confused glance. "-He isn't staying here?-"

"-For the most part, you've met the only people in Japan who speak your form of Egyptian, so he'll come with us posing as your translator,-" Yugi said, shaking his head.

Everyone deposited their luggage in their rooms (with one of Seto's clothing bags in Atemu's for Seth) before splitting into smaller groups to pass the time until bed. To his disgruntlement Seth was grabbed by Bakura and Marik and dragged down the streets, Ryou following behind while trying to cover a laugh.

When the owner of a certain cafe saw the dark-skinned, pale-haired duo walk down his street, he seriously considered closing shop right then and there. Unfortunately, the sight of Ryou, the boy nearly identical to the white haired thief despite his Japanese eyes and English skin, startled him enough that he couldn't move quickly enough to lock the doors before they entered, pulling along a fourth man, one who at least looked like a proper Egyptian, even if he also refused to speak the normal Arabic as he cursed at his captors. (1)

"-Aw, stop fussing,-" Bakura said with a roll of his eyes as he pushed the pharaoh into a seat. "-It's small, but this place has some of the best food in the city. Don't think the owner likes us though. Kept muttering to himself the entire time we were here last time.-"

"-Then he's an intelligent man,-" Seth retorted, softening his glare when Ryou sat next to him. You just couldn't be too angry when a hikari was around. "-Just how far away is this country of yours?-"

"-Pretty far,-" Ryou said after speaking briefly to a waitress. "-It'll take a good portion of the day tomorrow, even with the speed of our transportation, and planes fly faster than dragons.-"

"Can't wait to see his face at take-off," Bakura whispered to Marik, who smirked. "Atemu's was fun enough, and he'd been on one before while still sharing Yugi's body."

The tomb keeper poked him in the ribs. "What about you, oh holy one? How did you get so accustomed to planes?"

"Ryou has a habit of sleeping during flights. I took over a few times."

"-Why do I get worried whenever those two start talking in one of the other languages?-" Seth asked the hikari, who's smile was amused as he watched his yami and friend.

Ryou's face was perfectly innocent. "-Because you have common sense.-"

----

----

1. Yeps, same cafe from chapter one.


	12. Domino

A/N: I only have 29 days of school left before I graduate! Yatta! And summer means that I have a lot more free time to write. I also finished my two extra classes yesterday, which means a lot less stress around the home. It makes me very happy. Anyway, this lovely new chapter is dedicated to Lizeth, the wonderful goddess of fandom who drew me not only one, but two pieces of fanart for "Return of the King." (I would be dancing in joy, but my feet hurt too much from the school dance last night. Won the prize for 'fastest foot work.') The pictures can be seen here:

www. deviantart. com/deviation/53612737/

www. deviantart. com/deviation/53177663/

Today is also my sister's twenty-third birthday, which means that my family gets to take her out to dinner after she gets off of work, give her presents and all that love. Life is good. So, enjoy the new chapter and leave me a review!

"Return of the King"

Chapter Twelve

Domino

Seth stared in suspicion at the large metal construct that Ryou had informed him was called an 'airplane.' Supposedly, it flew. Somehow he couldn't picture something that large getting off of the group especially it's huge fin-like 'wings' couldn't even flap.

"-Believe me, it flies fine,-" Yugi said, noticing Seth's skepticism. "-We arrived in Egypt inside one after all. Don't worry; Atemu was nervous on his first flight too.-"

"-So, they're not alive?-" Seth asked to confirm what he'd been told, looking down at the hikari, who nodded. "-But they move under their own power anyway?-"

Yugi nodded again while turning his head to watch Seto moving toward them after speaking to a couple of the airport staff.

"-They've loaded all of the luggage and we can leave just as soon as everyone is settled inside,-" the pale brunette informed them. He gave a nod toward Seth. "-I've also given an explanation for your presence.-" His smile was not kind. "It should keep the media busy for a while."

Yugi's eyes narrowed. "-What did you tell them?-"

"-That Seth is our mutual relation.-"

There was a moment of silence before... "-But that would mean that _we're_ related!-"

Seto smirked, feeling no pity for the sputtering teen. "-Which will keep them busy searching through the Kaiba family history for forays into Egypt until one of the simpletons remembers that we are not Kaiba by blood.-" He snorted. "-Then they'll realize that Gozaburo had the records of our birth parents sealed when he took Mokuba and me in, leaving them at a neatly tied dead end.-"

"-And it does give us a reason to have gone to Egypt in the first place," Yugi admitted reluctantly. "-But you do realize that Bakura is never going to let us live this down, don't you?-"

The CEO tilted his head to the side in amusement. "-We can always threaten to tell the press that he's related to the Ishtars.-"

"Yugi, Seto, hurry up so we can take off!" Mokuba called from the boarding stairs where he was counting heads as people passed him.

Shaking his head over the roll reversal of who bossed around whom Seto followed his little brother's orders and herded the other two shadow mages (former, in Seth's case) toward and up the staircase, ruffling Mokuba's hair ("Seto!") as they went in.

-

It wasn't long before Seth had decided that he was _never_ going to fly on a plane again. Ever. At the end of the week, they would have to find some other mode of transportation or put up with him for a little while longer.

"-Aw, is the mighty pharaoh getting airsick?-" the tomb robber cooed, leaning over the back of his seat.

Bakura's teasing wasn't helping.

Keeping eyes shut to fight down the nausea, Seth snorted. "-No, I'm simply trying to remember how to exorcise a spirit from its host.-" His namesake be damned. He could handle boats; why was he having problems here?

"-It wouldn't do any good I'm afraid, since Bakura's new body doesn't technically count as a possessed host,-" Ryou said, hitting his yami upside the head. "-Believe me, we know. A couple of priests back home have tried it already.-"

"-It might have worked last year, when Bakura and Ryou were sharing a body," Yugi commented from across the isle. "-You should try to sleep. It'll make you feel better and the trip go faster.-"

"-And it'll be a lot easier to adjust to the time zone change,-" Ryou added, looking down as he fiddled with his watch. "-It should be morning when we get there.-"

"-But it was morning when we left,-" Seth protested, confused.

"-It's too complicated to explain, so just trust us,-" Yugi said, slumping down in his seat next to Seto. Mokuba had chosen to stretch out over two seats a few rows back and was already fast asleep.

Seth was still skeptical but accepted the light blanket he was offered anyway and attempted to curl up in his seat, the absence of anyone in the next giving him more room. He still didn't quite understand their world.

"Kaiba-sama, we've printed the photograph you requested," a man said as he entered the cabin. He nodded to Yugi apologetically before reaching past him to present his employer with the large picture. "Is there anything else you need, sir?"

Seto shook his head, dismissing the man. Looking the photo over, he signed it with an efficient swirl of the pen. Handing both to Yugi, he shrugged. "We did promise. Make sure everyone signs it."

Yugi looked down at the picture in his hand and blinked. Someone (he suspected Mokuba) had managed to get a picture that encompassed their entire dueling group, Seth included. For a picture that wasn't posed, it was actually pretty good.

He and Ryou were dead center, stretched out over a blanket playing a game of horses and chariots. Atemu leaned over Yugi, watching the game in interest. Seth sat next to the board between them, caught pointing out something among the pieces. Bakura and Marik were arm wrestling off to the left, watched by Jou and Honda, whose raised fingers clearly meant they were making bets.

Mai was sunbathing with one eye cracked open to see Seto and Ryuji holding a conversation off to the left; Yugi would have bet a lot of money that it was either about business or gaming. Ishizu was talking to two people whose faces were probably going to give the man who was receiving the photo a heart attack as he searched the web to compare their faces to two particular cards. Luckily, neither Mahado nor Mana were wearing their armor.

Shaking his head with a rueful glance toward Seto Yugi signed his name before passing the picture over to Ryuji with a short explanation. His chances for a quiet life were getting fewer and fewer.

"Do you realize how much that picture is probably worth on its own, not to mention signed?" he asked the teenager beside him, settling back into his seat.

"We can always make copies of the original photo," Seto said, pulling his laptop from his carry-on and fixing a headset into his ears, tuning out the conversations around him as he did so. "Noa, meet us in the home office at nine tomorrow morning and have the staff prepare two guest rooms."

Listening, Yugi blinked. Wasn't Noa staying in the shadow realm library while they were gone? Then he noticed the little wisps of shadows floating around the headset and grinned. He'd admitted to believing in magic for all of four months and had already incorporated it into his tech.

-

It was raining in Domino when their plane touched down and Seth stared out the small windows in wonder at the amount of greenery already visible even just form the airport.

Yugi suppressed a laugh upon seeing the pharaoh's expression. "-Welcome to Domino, Japan, our home sweet home.-"

"-If you think this is great, wait until you see the city proper,-" Ryou said as everyone stood and stretched. "-Ah, I can't wait to stop home and see Nikku.-"

"Nikku?" Seto asked, raising an eyebrow.

"-Bakura named her,-" the hikari explained. "-Said he found the similarity between cat and meat funny.-"

"-Not my fault your Brit friend got the two mixed up when he called and mistook me for you,-" Bakura said, reaching up to grab his carry-on out of the overhead. "-Oi, tomb keeper, wake up.-"

"/Eat dung./"

"/Good morning to you too./"

"Jou, you and Honda will need to pull distraction," Yugi instructed. "With what Kaiba told the airport staff in Alexandria, there're going to be a lot of reporters. -Seth, stick with me and Atemu.- Marik, go with the Kaibas. Girls, go with Mai."

"Ryuji, Ryou, Bakura, you're with us as well," Seto said. "The driver will be waiting for us by elevator B. Scatter and meet there."

"-Try to ignore the camera flashes,-" Atemu advised his cousin as they walked toward the gate.

His advice came none too soon as the group was bombarded with photographers and questions almost immediately. Grabbing hold of Seth's wrist, Yugi ducked his head and ran, pushing his way through the mass.

"Yugi Mouto, is it true that you and Seto Kaiba are related?"

"When did you find out about your relation?"

"What's his name?"

"Does he speak Japanese?"

"What about the rumors that Bakura Kaito is from an estranged branch of the Ishtar clan?"

"-_Kaiba_! I'm going to _kill _you!-"

Yugi giggled as his group separated from the rest of the 'court,' escaping toward the parking garage. Passing a gate manned by a familiar face, he stopped long enough to pull out the rolled photo from his coat and toss it to the man before continuing on.

There was a flurry of activity behind them when the gate attendant fainted upon unrolling the signed picture.

"-Is everything your people do this insane?-" Seth asked, gasping for air as they hit the stairs.

"-Mostly,-" Atemu admitted, grinning. "-I've gotten used to it.-"

Thankfully, no one was waiting at the car and they made it out of the airport un-mobbed from there.

"-That is why we normally don't announce our trips,-" Yugi said, slumping in his seat. "-Reporters are scary.-"

"-You should have seen the time we returned to Japan after Bakura and I had regained our bodies,-" Atemu said with a chuckle. "-As far as they'd known, we had just appeared out of nowhere.-"

Seth frowned, thinking. "-Do people in this world not know of the world of the living?-"

The other two Egyptian royals shared a glance before the younger spoke. "You didn't tell him?"

"I thought you were going to."

"He's your cousin. I though he'd take it better from you."

"You don't know my family."

"-Will someone just explain what's going on?-" Seth interrupted, getting irritated as they spoke over his head.

"-Do you remember when I said that Japan was both the same world as Egypt and not?-" Atemu asked cautiously, waiting for recognition in the blue eyes. "-Well, we technically are in the same world, only a bit in the future.-"

Seth's voice was absolutely unreadable to someone who hadn't grown up with him. "-How much of a _bit_?-"

The pharaoh cringed. _He _knew that tone from his cousin. "-Three thousand years.-"

Watching them through the rear view mirror, Sugoroku decided that he didn't really want to know. He recognized enough of those curses from the tombs he'd been in as a younger man. They were usually right next to the corpses of long-dead tomb robbers caught in traps.

Seto was definitely glad to be home. As promised, Noa has managed the company well in his short absence, catching one embezzler before he'd managed to steal more than two thousand yen. The CEO smirked. There were advantages to having your head of security and financials more than half computer.

"So, when do I get to meet this 'relative'?" the hologram asked, leaning on Seto's desk. Sure, there'd been a lot to read the in shadow library, but you could only read for so long before going stir crazy. He wanted to meet the man mentioned in a lot of the history books.

"Later this afternoon, most likely," Seto said, snapping his laptop shut after checking over a few business reports. "He's with the Moutos at the moment, since Atemu is actually his cousin. However, he will be staying at the house for the week of his stay."

The office door slammed open and one blonde Egyptian sauntered in, hands buried deep in his pants pockets. "Is there a reason every single one of your little employees flinch whenever I look at them?"

Noa snickered while Seto smirked, allowing himself a snort.

"Well?" Marik stressed, tapping his foot.

"The Battle City tournament was broadcast on the office screens," came the taller Kaiba's plain answer.

Marik groaned before realizing. "But I wasn't even here for most of that!"

"You also carry one of 'those freaky-gold-eyes-thingies'," Noa quoted, gesturing to where the scales poked out of the tomb keeper's coat pocket. "Believe me, I hear a lot of what's said around this company. Seto's workers have realized that things tend to go 'boom' when the items come within proximity of each other or their boss."

"I see Atemu's been visiting a lot, then," Marik said with a laugh.

"Bakura, actually," Seto corrected. "Amazingly enough, he's a decent conversationalist, especially when you get him away from the pharaoh. And Mokuba likes him. They get along well."

Marik shook his head. "Man, leave the country for a year and everything gets turned on its head. What's next? Hikari pranking people? Wait, they're already doing that. Your family and the Moutos going on a picnic then."

Completely straight-faced, Seto leaned across his desk to a grouping of frame photos, one of which he turned around to show the Egyptian. Catching sight of a park, multi-colored spikes, briefcase, and checkered blanket, Marik flopped down into a chair on his side of the desk and started hitting his head against it.

"At least its not the sand castle picture from the beach," Noa said, wincing. That had to hurt. "Seto refused to let that one leave the house."

By the time they'd reached the game shop Seth had resigned himself to spending every moment of the coming week seeing his view of the world shattered into tiny little pieces. He learned that the game he'd seen Ryou and Yugi playing was actually based on the shadow games, but harmless unless one added shadow magic to it, and that most of Atemu's court were well known players of it. That part, at least, was expected once he'd learned of its nature. What he hadn't expected was the fact that his reincarnation, as well as his cousin's new family, were merchants in the game distribution.

"-So you have no royal title whatsoever here,-" he said, leaning against the counter in the shop. Atemu was setting things up to reopen, much having been put away before they'd left for security reasons.

"-The closest I have is, ironically enough, Yugi-ou, which means 'King of Games,'-" Atemu agreed from behind one display case, where he was arranging a set of models.

"-'Yugi' means king?-" Seth asked, startled.

Atemu shook his head. "-'Game.' You have the parts mixed up. Fitting, isn't it?-"

"-A little _too _fitting,-" the former priest said, eyes briefly turning skyward.

That was when Yugi came bounding down the stairs, cordless phone in hand. "-Atemu, Jii-san said we have to deal with the displays later and Marik just called. We've got an hour to meet the others downtown for lunch.-"

"-Just tell me it isn't fast food. That stuff is disgusting.-"

"-Please; Seto picked out the restaurant. Do you really think he'd choose a place like that?-" Yugi asked, raising an eyebrow. "-'Sides, I'm not sure if Seth would be able to eat it. It took you a long time before you could stand the smell, and that was after getting used to it through me.-"

Rolling his eyes, Atemu shut the display case and stood up, stretching to fix his back after leaning down for a long time. "-Who else is coming?-"

"-Just Marik, Bakura and Ryou, I think,-" Yugi said, thinking. "-Most of the others have homework to get done before school starts up again.-" He caught his yami's eye. "-And before you say it, I already did mine.-"

Red eyes narrowed humorously. "-Even your summer report?-"

"-Yep,-" the hikari chirped. "-I wrote all about the historical reenactment we attended in Egypt.-"

"-Only you, Aibou.-"

----

1. If someone could draw that picture for me, I'd love them forever.

2. I actually made that mistake during a Japanese class a few years ago. Nikku (meat) and neko (cat) are very similar to the begining student.


	13. Home Again

A/N: Alright, final chapter! I know it's a bit short, but I just couldn't drag it out any longer without having to drag it out _much_ longer, and I think that I should have ended it when they left AE in the first place. But I didn't, so meh. Anyway, I don't own Yugioh, so no suing me. I'm broke anyway, and the money I do have goes to my hotel room for SakuraCon. Enjoy the new chapter. Read and review!

"Return of the King"

Chapter Thirteen

Home Again

Apparently, Seto's idea of a suitable restaurant was one that would give Seto a crash course in Japanese food. That is, _traditional_ Japanese food. It took a lot of coaxing and a few threats to get the royal to eat the sashimi. In the end, a few well-done taunts from Bakura did the trick.

"-So, what do you think of Japan so far?-" Ryou asked, inching the sake bottle Bakura had ordered away from the thief. He didn't want his yami convincing Seth to drink any. The pharaoh may have a good tolerance for wine, having grown up on it, but sake was stronger than what he was used to.

"-I think that I understand why you are all so strange,-" he said flatly. "-Spending so much as a month here would drive anyone nuts.-"

"-I wouldn't say that,-" Marik said. "-Bakura grows less homicidal the longer he's here.-"

"-Until you show up,-" Yugi added with a grin. "-Your presence sets back his therapy by years. He'll probably be back to his original pharaoh-hunting, puzzle-stealing self by the end of the week.-"

Atemu grimaced. "-Let's hope not. I like my stress levels where they are, thank you very much. Having to be constantly looking over my shoulder every second of the day is not good for my heart.-"

"-At least you're not sharing it with Yugi anymore,-" Seto said with a smirk. "-He has enough troubles being short without adding heart problems to the list.-"

"-I heard that.-"

"-I wasn't attempting to be quiet.-"

"-So, where's Mokuba?-" Ryou asked, trying to divert the possible argument.

"-He was playing chess with Noa when I left,-" the CEO said, signaling for the bill once it was clear that everyone was finished eating. "-I don't expect them to be finished until dinner.-"

So it was that Seth left with Seto and Marik, saying a temporary goodbye to his cousin, the thief, and the hikari with plans to see the older two the next day, as the younger would be busy. With what, they hadn't explained.

"-Do you live in a similar home as Atemu and Yugi?-" Seth asked as the limo pulled away. "-They said that you were in the same business, but a different part of it.-"

Seto snorted. "-A _much_ different part of the business. You'll find that our homes are nothing alike.-"

A short while later, Seth found out just how differently the Moutos and the Kaibas lived. The gated mansion that the limo pulled up to was more like the palaces he was familiar with than the small house/shop Atemu currently lived in. He nodded in approval. His reincarnation had done well for himself even without royal blood to back him up at the start. And from what he understood, Seto was barely a legal adult in the eyes of his country.

"Welcome home, Mr. Kaiba," the head of staff greeted as they entered the 'house.' "As ordered, the largest guest rooms have been prepared for use and the chef has been informed of your guests' particular tastes."

"Good," Seto said briskly as he handed his coat to a waiting housekeeper. Seth followed suit but Marik voted to keep hold of his to put in his own room. "Mokuba is still in the den?"

"Yes sir," the man said. "If I am to say, he appears to have the edge at this time."

Seto dismissed both employees with a nod. "-I'll show you two your rooms before giving you a brief tour of the basics.-"

They were led up stairs to a blue carpeted hallway (something that impressed Seth, who was used to rugs that covered only a small portion of the floor) that split into two others perpendicularly.

"Your rooms are right across the hall from each other and have bathrooms attached to them,-" he explained. "-Marik can explain their use. They are these two here.-"

For the size of the house, the tour was surprisingly brief, though they supposed it was because most of the house would be considered unimportant or 'none of their business.'

Seth found his room much like the one he'd stayed in at the Alexandrian inn, only with one bed and a lot more luxury. Good thing, too, since he was left there with a few books (thankfully in a language that he knew how to read) as soon as the tour had ended. Despite his wealth, Seto did not appear to enjoy hosting.

There was a sound from his door shortly before dinner, startling the young pharaoh. "-Enter.-" When there was no response, he frowned, standing up and stalking toward the door. Swinging it open, he set up his best glare to find… nothing. "-Show yourself.-"

He didn't see the hand in front of his face until he was already stepping forward and through it.

Seth was too shocked to move as he watched the intangible image of a boy about Mokuba's age step back from the spot he'd just moved into, shaking his head with annoyance. "-You know, not everyone around here is as monstrously tall as you and Seto. Look _down_ once in a while.-"

"-What are you?-" he found himself asking automatically.

"-Noa Kaiba,-" the boy said, ignoring the exact phrasing. "-Seto and Mokuba's stepbrother. And I was sent to show _you_ how to get to the dining room, because you'd get lost on your own in all likely hood. So stop gaping and come on.-"

Noa abruptly turned and began walking down the hall, clearly miffed at being called a 'what,' and forcing Seth to hurriedly follow behind him. As blunt as the boy had been, he was right. The halls were confusing and he likely would have lost his way if not for his guide.

They stopped at another door on the way, Noa calling through the wood: "Mokuba, dinner!"

Mokuba shot out of the room almost immediately, running _through_ Noa and almost into Seth, who rubbed his eyes to rid them of the image. The ghost boy showed no other sign of being supernatural in nature (except for perhaps the hair, but he'd seen plenty of odd colors in other magic users) until one tried to come in contact with him. And he was their brother?

Seto and Marik were already in the dining room when he arrived and Seth was thankful to see more familiar dishes covering the table than they'd had at the noon meal. Who had ever heard of eating raw fish anyway?

Seth found himself being awoken by a sharp, rapid sound early in the morning, long before Ra's rising from the looks of the sky outside. He tracked the sound to a small black box with glowing symbols blinking at him. A small note was sitting on the table next to it with a quick sketch of the box, an arrow pointing to an elongated bump-out.

"'-Push the button to make it shut up, Marik,-'" he read. Glancing between the box and paper, he cautiously did as instructed and, thankfully, the sound stopped. "-What a hideous device.-"

As it seemed that no spirit-like Kaiba siblings were coming to show him the way downstairs that morning, Seth was forced to find his own way down to the dining hall. Thankfully, he caught sight of a familiar dark head on the second floor. Catching sight of him, Mokuba blinked up at Seth, only half conscious, before continuing to wander down the hall. Following the boy, Seth found himself being led, not to the dining room, but to a large kitchen where a servant placed a plate in front of each of them before refilling Seto's coffee.

"-Bakura and Atemu should be here in an hour,-" the CEO said without preamble. Before Mokuba had eaten and consumed his usual orange juice, he wouldn't hear a greeting anyway.

"-What is it?-" Seth asked, looking curiously at his food.

"-Bread fried in egg and milk,-" Seto said, setting down his newspaper to take a sip of the coffee. "-The green fruit is an apple. They weren't introduced to Egypt until after your time.-"

His two contemporaries were shown into the kitchen just as the three finished eating., meaning that Mokuba was finally awake enough to say hello.

"-I hope you slept well, cousin,-" Atemu said, taking a seat at the table.

"-At least until some shrieking box woke me,-" Seth said with a nod.

"-Alarm clock,-" Bakura said, smirking. "-The bane of peaceful mornings, but fun when placed in someone else's room.-"

"-Is that why Ryou's always so early to class?-" Seto asked, eyebrow raised. The thief's grin was answer enough.

"-What will we be doing today?-" the new pharaoh asked, curious.

"-We have some errands to run for Sugoroku, so we'll show you the parts of the city that we can before heading back to the shop for the after school rush,-" Atemu explained. "-Then the hikari plan to take over.-"

"-Why does that worry me?-" Seth thought out loud as he accepted the coat his doppelganger had lent him. How it had gotten into the kitchen he wasn't quite sure. "-Will Marik be coming with us?-"

Atemu glanced over to Seto, unsure on the answer. The priest snorted, shaking his head. "The tomb keeper has stated that we're all mad and that the world is ending. He'll be fine by later in the afternoon."

The game king blinked. "-Guess not.-"

Oddly enough Seth found his training for fighting useful when following the two around their city, especially in dodging the vehicles that seemed intent on running them over as they crossed the streets. Over the course of the day he learned that the country leaders ordered children up to such an age to be rounded up each day for schooling. While a noble idea, Seth couldn't quite fit his mind around the idea of hundreds of children in one place where their tutors managed to not only keep them orderly but teach them as well.

"-There are reasons why teachers sometimes go mad,-" Bakura said with a laugh when Seth voiced his thoughts.

Atemu snorted. "-Especially when they're around white-haired students with homicidal tendencies?-"

"-Hey, don't go blaming Ryou for that!-"

"-I wasn't.-"

"-Oh.-"

-

At the end of the week Seth couldn't decide whether to be relieved or disappointed to be seeing the shores of Egypt again. At his insistence they had taken a train and then a ship this time, despite the fact that it added a few days to the trip. It was a much smaller group traveling to escort him home: only his cousin, Marik, and Yuugi.

"-Who knows, maybe Ra will let us visit again,-" Yugi said, grinning as they stood on deck, waiting for the dock men to finish tying the mooring lines.

Seth laughed. "-No offense, Yugi, but I'm not sure if Egypt could survive another encounter with you and my cousin's court. Best to keep the dead and the living in their own worlds and times. You will be missed, though."

"-Not by Shu and Geb, especially once they finish unpacking their things after settling back into the palace,-" the hikari said, innocent. "-I think my grandfather found some curses to me carved on the temple walls when he was younger. Didn't really understand them until recently.-"

"-Yugi, Seth, time to go!-" Marik called, waving them over to the ramp. He and Atemu already stood with Ishizu and a guard down on the dock waiting for them.

"-We're going to leave immediately for the valley, where Ra will be meeting us come sunset,-" Atemu said as they regrouped. "-Do try to avoid getting into another war.-"

"-I didn't try to get into this last one,-" Seth said, glancing down at his cousin with a smile. It looked as though _he_ would be leaving Atemu this time around.

Many hours later he found himself embracing his two kin (Yugi was part of Atemu, after all) as they watched the sky begin to color. No more words were exchanged as Ra's power enveloped him and took the young pharaoh home.

-

"-You're absolutely sure that they said a week,-" Isis fretted, pacing back and forth in the throne room. Shada sat on the steps leading up to the royal chair, trying not to watch her for fear of getting dizzy again.

"-Yes, a week, seven days,-" he said, resting his forehead in one palm. "-The day isn't over yet, Isis. Would you please stop worrying and sit down?-"

"-Two vanishing acts in as many months,- she said, thankfully stopping her pacing. "-He's as bad as Atemu.-"

"-I'm not sure whether or not I should take that as a complement.-"

Both priests froze, shock on their faces as they turned to face the throne. Looking incredibly amused as he peered down at his two old friends was Seth. Isis let out a cry before dashing up the steps to hug him before pulling back to slap the man upside the head. "-That's what you get for making us worry again!-"

Seth laughed in good humor. "-It's not as though I asked them to jump me the moment they were being pulled back to their world.-"

"-Did you at least enjoy yourself over there while we were turning white with worry?-" Shada asked, standing up and going to join them.

"-None of this leaves this room,-" Seth said firmly. The two nodded eagerly. "-I have some very strange and interesting tales to tell you...-"

The End


End file.
